A FEATHERED NOTABLE 103 
and feed its own young, whereupon the tempest 
would slowly subside, only to be renewed on the 
appearance of the next great blue bird coming 
down over the wood. 
One of the most delightful, the most exhilarating 
spectacles of wild bird life is that of the soaring 
heron. The great blue bird, with great round 
wings so measured in their beats, yet so buoyant 
in the vast void air! It is indeed a sight which 
moves all men to admiration in all countries which 
the great bird inhabits; and I remember one of 
the finest passages in old Spanish poetry describes 
the heron rejoicing in its placid flight. ‘“‘ Have you 
seen it, beautiful in the heavens!” the poet 
exclaims in untranslatable lines, in which the 
harmonious words, delicado y sonoroso, and the 
peculiar rhythm are made to mimic the slow 
pulsation of the large wings. Who has not seen 
it and experienced something of the feeling which 
stirred the old writer centuries ago: 
Has visto hermosa en el cielo 
La garza sonrearse con placido vuélo? 
Has visto, torciendo de la mano, 
Sacra que la deribe por el suelo? 
The most perfect example I know of in literature 
in which the sound is an echo to the sense. How 
artificial and paltry that ornament often seems to 
us in our poets, even in much-admired passages, 
such as Goldsmith’s white- washed walls and 
nicely-sanded floor, and the varnished clock that 
