IX 



THE HERON: A FEATHERED NOTABLE 



The bird-watcher's life is an endless succession of 

 surprises. Almost every day he appears fated to 

 witness some habit, some action, which he had 

 never seen or heard of before, and will perhaps 

 never see again. Who but Waterton ever beheld 

 herons hovering like gulls over the water, attracted 

 by the fish swimming near the surface ? And who, 

 I wonder, except myself ever saw herons bathing 

 and wallowing after the manner of beasts, not 

 birds ? At all events I do not remember any 

 notice of such a habit in any account of the heron 

 I have read ; and I have read many. At noon, 

 one hot summer day, I visited Sowley Pond, which 

 has a heronry near it on the Hampshire coast ; and 

 peeping through the trees on the bank I spied 

 five herons about twenty yards from the margin 

 bathing in a curious way among the floating poa 

 grass, where the water was about two feet deep or 

 more. All were quietly resting in different positions 

 in the water — one was sitting on his knees with 

 head and neck and shoulders out of it, another 

 was lying on one side with one half-open wing 



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