loo BIRDS OF LA PLATA 



digests his food so rapidly that, however much he 

 devours, he is always ready to gorge again; con- 

 sequently he is not benefited so much by what he 

 eats, and appears in the same state of semi-starvation 

 when food is abundant as in times of scarcity. An 

 old naturalist has suggested, as a reason for this, 

 that the Heron, from its peculiar manner of taking 

 its prey, requires fair weather to fish — that dturing 

 spells of bad weather, when it is compelled to suffer 

 the pangs of famine inactive, it contracts a meagre 

 consumptive habit of body, which subsequent plenty 

 cannot remove. A pretty theory, but it will not hold 

 water ; for in this region spells of bad weather are 

 brief and infrequent; moreover, all other species 

 that feed at the same table with the Heron, from the 

 little flitting Kingfisher to the towering Flamingo, 

 become excessively fat at certain seasons, and are at 

 all times so healthy and vigorous that, compared with 

 them, the Heron is the mere ghost of a bird. In no 

 extraneous circumstances, but in the organisation of 

 the bird itself, must be sought the cause of its 

 anomalous condition ; it does not appear to possess 

 the fat-elaborating power, for at no season is any 

 fat found on its dry, starved flesh ; consequently 

 there is no provision for a rainy day, and the misery 

 of the bird (if it is miserable) consists in its perpetual, 

 never-satisfied craving for food. 



