LITTLE BITTERNS. 285 



but, as he has a background of green bushes or wood-work, his efforts at 

 concealment are vain. 



The notion of concealment in relation to natural surroundings is, however, 

 thoroughly explained by Mr. Hudson's experiences. He writes : — " One day 

 in November, 1870, when out shooting, I noticed a Variegated Bittern stealing 

 off quickly through a bed of rushes thirty or forty yards from me. He was 

 a foot or so above the ground, and went so rapidly that he appeared to glide 

 through the rushes without touching them. I fired, but afterwards ascer- 

 tained that in my hurry I missed my aim. The bird, however, disappeared 

 at the report, and, thinking I had killed him, I went to the spot. 



"It was a small isolated bed of rushes I had seen him in ; the mud below, 

 and for some distance round, was quite bare and hard, so that it would have 

 been impossible for the bird to escape without being perceived ; and yet, dead 

 or alive, he was not to be found. After vainly searching and re-searchirg 

 through the rushes for a quarter of an hour, I gave over the quest in great 

 disgust and bewilderment, and, after reloading, was just turning to go, when, 

 behold ! there stood my Heron on a reed, no more than eight inches from, 

 and on a level with, my knees. He was perched, the body erect, and the 

 point of the tail touching the reed grasped by its feet, the long, slender, 

 tapering neck was held stiff, straight, and vertically; and the head and beak, 

 instead of being carried obliquely, were also pointing up. There was not, 

 from his feet to the tip of his beak, a perceptible curve or inequality, but 

 the whole was the figure (the exact counterpart) of a straight, tapering rush ; 

 the loose plumage arranged to fill inequalities, and the wings pressed into 

 the hollow sides, made it impossible to see where the body ended and the 

 neck began, or to distinguish hea-d from neck or beak from head. This was, 

 of course, a front view ; and the entire under-surface of the bird was thus 

 displayed all of a uniform dull yellow, like that of a faded rush. I regarded 

 the bird wonderingly for some time, but not the least motion did it make. I 

 thought it was wounded or paralysed with fear, and, placing my hand on the 

 point of its beak, forced the head down till it touched the back ; when I 

 withdrew my hand, up tiew the head, like a steel spring, to its first position. 

 I repeated the experiment many times with the same result, the very eyes rf 

 the bird appearing all the time rigid and unwinking, like those of a creature 

 in a fit. What wonder that it is so difficult — almost impossible — to discover the 

 bird in such an attitude. But how happened it that, while repeatedly walking 

 round the bird through the rushes, I had not caught sight of the striped back 

 and the broad, dark-coloured sides? I asked myself this question, and stepped 

 round to get a side view, when, mirahile dictii, I could still see nothing but the 

 rush-like front of the bird. His motions on the perch as he turned slowly 

 or quickly round, still keeping the edge of the blade-like body before me, 

 corresponded so exactly with my own that I almost doubted that I had 

 moved at all. No sooner had I seen the finishing part of this marvellous 

 instinct of self-preservation (this last act making the whole complete), than 

 such a degree of delight and admiration possessed me as I have never before 

 experienced during my researches, much as I have conversed with wild 

 animals in the wilderness, and many and perfect as are the instances of 

 adaptation I have witnessed. I could not finish admiring, and thought that 

 never had anything so beautiful fallen in my way before, for even the sublime 

 cloud-seeking instinct of the White Egret and the typical Herons seemed 

 less admirable than this, and for some time I continued experimenting, 

 pressing down the bird's head and trying to bend him by main force into 



