298 DECEMBER 



ambiguity about a duck's ablutions when it sets to 

 work; the bird seems to be simply delighting in 

 the sparkling water and bright sunshine, and she 

 continues the motion as long as we continue to 

 watch her. 



There is a pale lean form visible at the edge of 

 yonder floating tangle, so still and grey that it 

 might easily escape observation, but that a brace of 

 mischievous rooks, winging along the shore, turn 

 aside to make an unfriendly demonstration towards 

 it. This is a heron, lone and melancholy as the 

 shade of departed chivalry; see how angrily he 

 turns his sharp lance towards the intruders, who, 

 after wheeling two or three times round him, wisely 

 pursue their way, and the other resumes his fishing. 

 He stands mid-thigh in the tide, his neck stiff and 

 slightly projected, intently watching the fringe of 

 seaweed. He has seen something; slowly, almost 

 imperceptibly, he pushes himself a few inches 

 forward, till within striking distance; like a flash 

 he darts his head javelin-fashion under water, 

 and when he raises it there is a fish of six 

 inches between his serrated mandibles. Three 

 times within ten minutes the same operation is 

 successfully repeated; once he is baulked at the 



