192 LONG-LEGGED BIRDS. 



each winter to hide away in the reed-beds where his 

 predecessors once nested. He is so beautifully adapted 

 by his colours and markings to escape observation in 

 his reedy haunts, and must in the past so often have 

 avoided detection from this cause, that he instinctively 

 refrains from rising until flushed by the immediate 

 presence of danger. Then he rises — a great, ruddy, 

 black-marked bird — on broad, slowly flapping wings, 

 the neck drawn in, and the long, green legs thrown 

 out straight behind the short tail. He will have 

 gone but a short distance ere he seeks security in 

 hiding and drops into the reeds again. He has 

 much in build and flight to remind one of the Heron, 

 but in colour and markings is quite unlike it or any 

 other bird that may frequent the reeds. He is a 

 night-feeder, and then comes out of hiding to fish 

 in the shallows, or to catch frogs or mice or any 

 small ground-life that comes within range of his 

 powerful bill. The call-note is a hoarse croak some- 

 what resembling that of the Raven, but the famous 

 ' booming ' of the Bittern is heard only where it 

 breeds, and that unfortunately is no longer in this 

 country. 



HERON — 36 inches. A bird of the water-sidOj gray above 

 and white below ; but, though a feeder at evening, 

 it appears in the open in daylight, and seeks safety 

 in distance rather than in hiding. 



