ii2 IN BERKSHIRE FIELDS 



sufficient powers of locomotion to take the air that 

 night. In the morning he was gone. A slight limp 

 in blue herons seems to be not uncommon, due to 

 the fact, it is said, that one leg is frequently shorter 

 than the other, from the habit of using but one to 

 stand on. You sometimes hear people pity a "poor, 

 lame heron" that is probably quite unconscious of 

 any need for pity. They used to pity the mother 

 who limped out with her one long-legged offspring 

 from the fringe of woods along the Ham Branch 

 at twilight, seeking, perhaps, some sort of food in 

 the meadow, though it had all the appearance of 

 an evening stroll. However, when anybody at- 

 tempted to walk down across the meadow and get 

 near the couple, the "poor, lame thing" displayed 

 an agility that was remarkable, and so did the 

 offspring. Familiarity was permitted to breed no 

 contempt for that old bird! She was quite willing 

 to be a decorative touch to the lovely intervale 

 landscape, from afar; but she had no intention of 

 allowing what the motion pictures describe as a 

 "close-up." 



It has never occurred to me to think of the little 

 green heron as decorative. Yet I suppose he is, 

 especially when he is wading on some mud-bar in a 

 swale that makes in from the river, or sits on an 

 old log in the swamp, from a little distance scarcely 

 appearing green at all, but rather bluish, so far as 

 there is any obvious coloration to its dusky hue. 

 The reason the little green heron doesn't seem 

 decorative to me goes back a long way, to my boy- 

 hood, to the popular names attached to this bird 

 because of certain of its habits. It was then, and 



