THE HERON 93 



feet. The heavy dotted white line defines 

 the arc of the "window"; a lighter line has 

 been run round the compressed image of the 

 heron. The adult bird has a dark patch of 

 plumage on either side of the head and on the 

 wings. These marks are shown in the photo- 

 graph of the stuffed specimen. Seen from 

 below, the black patches on the head stick up 

 as two horns, while the light plumage on the 

 top of the head blends with the grey sky beyond. 

 Towards the right the back of the bird has an 

 appearance similar to the tree-tops eighty feet 

 away. On the left the dark wing-patch blends 

 with the trees. 



Next, without moving the bird, reeds were 

 placed in the water seven feet behind. It will 

 .be seen how the dark markings on the head fit 

 in with the pattern made by these reeds against 

 the sky. This photograph represents exactly 

 the appearance at dusk, and gives a fair indica- 

 tion of how the bird, the reeds, and the trees 

 all appear to be on the same plane, and how the 

 head and body of the wader are absorbed into 

 the general pattern. 



To get a better representation of the under- 

 water view of the surface the reader should raise 



