250 EDGE OF THE JUNGLE 



who had crept deep among the branches, again 

 emerging in house coat of drab ! These were not 

 the same, however, and the first glance through 

 binoculars showed the thick-set, humped figures 

 and huge, staring eyes of night herons. 



As the last rays of the sun left the summit of 

 the royal palms, something like the shadow of a 

 heron flashed out and away, and then the import 

 of these facts was impressed upon me. The 

 egret, the night heron, the vampire here were 

 three types of organisms, characterizing the ac- 

 tions and reactions in nature. The islands were 

 receiving and giving up. Their heart was be- 

 coming filled with the many day-feeding birds, 

 and now the night-shift was leaving, and the 

 very branch on which a night heron might have 

 been dozing all day was now occupied, perhaps, 

 by a sleeping egret. With eyes enlarged to 

 gather together the scanty rays of light, the night 

 herons were slipping away in the path of the 

 vampires both nocturnal, but unlike in all other 

 ways. And I wondered if, in the very early 

 morning, infant night herons would greet their 

 returning parents ; and if their callow young ever 

 fell into the dark waters, what awful deathly ai 



