626 MR. W.H. HUDSON ON THE HABITS OF HERONS. [Noyv. 16, 
This little Heron frequents beds of reeds growing in rather deep 
water. Very seldom, and probably only accidentally, does it visit the 
land; and only when disturbed does it rise above the reeds; for its 
flight, unlike that of its congeners, is of the feeblest: but it lives 
exclusively amongst the reeds, that, smooth as a polished pipe-stem, 
rise vertically from water too deep for the bird to wade in. Yet the 
Heron goes up to the summit or down to the surface, and moves 
freely and briskly about amongst them, and runs in a straight line 
through them almost as rapidly as a Plover runs over the bare level 
ground. 
Unless I myself had been a witness of this feat, I could scarcely 
have credited it ; for how does it manage to grasp the smooth ver- 
tical reeds quickly and firmly enough to progress so rapidly without 
ever slipping downward through them? I will return anon to this 
bird to give an account of an instinct it possesses far more interesting 
than the one I have just recorded. 
Another characteristic of Herons is that they carry the neck, when 
flying, folded in the form of the letter S. At other times the bird 
also carries the neck this way ; and it is, indeed, in all long-necked 
species the figure the neck assumes when the bird reposes or is in 
the act of watching something below it ; and the Heron’s life is 
almost a perpetual watch. Apropos of this manner of carrying the 
neck, so natural to the bird, is it not the cause of the extreme wari- 
ness observable in Herons? - Herons are, I think, everywhere shy 
of disposition ; with us they are the wildest of*water-fowl; yet there 
isjno reason for their being so, since they are never persecuted. 
‘Birds ever fly reluctantly from danger; and all species possessing 
the advantage of a long neck, such as the Swan, Flamingo, Stork, 
Spoonbill, &c., will continue with their necks stretched to their 
utmost capacity watching an intruder for an hour at a time rather 
than fly away. 
But in the Herons it must be only by a great effort the neck can 
be wholly unbent; for.even if the neck cut out from a dead bird be 
forcibly straightened and then released, it flies back like a piece of 
india-rubber to its original shape. Therefore the effort to straighten 
the neck, invariably the first expression of alarm and curiosity, must 
be a painful one ; and to keep it for any length of time in that posi- 
tion is probably as insupportable to the bird as to keep the arm 
straightened vertically would be to a.man. ‘Thus the Heron flies at 
the first sight of an intruder, whilst the persecuted Duck, Swan, or 
other fowl continues motionless, watching with outstretched neck, 
participating in the alarm certainly, but not enduring actual physical 
ain. 
a Doubtless in many cases habits react upon and modify the struc- 
ture of parts ; and in this instance the modified structure has appa- 
rently reacted on and modified the habits. In seeking for and taking 
food, the body is required to perform certain definite motions and 
assume repeatedly the same attitudes; this is most frequently the 
ease in birds of aquatic habits. A facility for assuming at all times, 
and an involuntary falling into, these peculiar attitudes and gestures, 
