808 Union Bay 



remained after trie general exodus : they were the ones which 

 were to teach me that a specialist under adverse conditions 

 is in a sorry plight. 



For what could a specialist, whose safety depended upon 

 waving cattails and heavy growth and dark shadows, do 

 when most of the vegetation lay in heaps on the ground and 

 under many inches of snow? Brown and white stripes offered 

 no protection. The snow-covered ground reflected light into 

 every cranny and removed the protective shadows. And how 

 could a creature which depended on animal food gain a liv- 

 ing when the sources of such food were sealed with snow 

 crust and ice? 



In the summer I had often seen the bittern on a small 

 point just opposite the bank which I passed. It had fished 

 there regularly, feet in soft squishy mud, sun on its back, 

 lethargic, comfortable, and confident, I assume, that almost 

 any time it could pull a fat tadpole from the water. Did 

 memory, or that which takes the place of memory in birds, 

 make it feel that since tadpoles were once there they should 

 always be there regardless of season? I could not think that 

 this bittern was to die because only animal food would satisfy 

 it. I asked myself why a bird of this kind could not be 

 equipped with a more flexible sort of behavior pattern so 

 that if frogs and other favored articles of diet were not pres- 

 ent it might take something that would furnish temporary 

 relief. Men who got desperately hungry chewed grass or 

 leather, drank coal oil, or even ate dirt in the hope of getting 

 some nourishment. Why shouldn't a hungry bittern go 

 through the motions of eating and in so doing get hold of 

 seeds or roots or something nourishing enough to prolong 

 existence? Such narrow limitations appeared unjustified. 

 Was it reasonable that specialization could be carried so far 

 that its practice meant death to the specialist? 



I walked back to the float. The clouds had not lifted, but 

 they were so thin that the sun showed faintly through them. 



