176 FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC 
the water edge. But they seemed too exposed to let us 
come near them, and we were in too great a hurry to try 
to circumvent them. Near the shore I picked up a couple 
of small birds of the lark family and one a little like our 
yellow bunting. I had No. 8 shot, so they were fit for 
specimens ; we placed them on a high stone and signalled 
to the doctor to pick them up, and pegged on, over 
rocks, peat, and bog. Just as wc got within shot of the 
beach a heron of some kind got up and I straightway let 
drive, and the wretched beast fell out in the sea. It was 
an unfamiliar heron to me, of a brownish colour, with a 
very long yellow crest, with the ermine-like neck feathers 
of a yellow tint, a little like our night heron, and the only- 
way to get it was to swim for it. My word, it was cold ! 
and the sensation of swimming through the kelp with the 
heron in tow was anything but pleasant. The scientist 
now came up in great glee; he had been having a splendid 
