THE BIRDS. 
175 
myself I am glad to have a chance of repaying 
part of the debt I have long owed to this fine 
observer and beautiful writer. The names of 
birds in what follows are taken from his Birds 
of La Plata , or they are the common names of 
the country. 
As you go up the Alto-Parand, certain birds 
are so common that you can hardly look out 
without seeing them. One is the Little Blue 
Heron. He is a miniature of our heron, less 
than half the size, and duller in colouring. He 
lives low down, sitting on a branch overhanging 
the water. As the launch comes up he flies off, 
his wings flapping in steady heron fashion, and 
goes perfectly straight away a foot above the 
water and three or four yards from the bank, 
not deviating an inch. When he has made a 
hundred yards or so, he will suddenly turn in 
to the bank, and sit looking at you, not moving 
a feather: and then when the noisy launch 
comes near, off he flies again. The process is 
repeated two or three times, until either he gets 
tired or comes to the conclusion that the launch 
is more unpleasant than dangerous; this time 
he sits quite motionless looking at you, and will 
let the launch pass within a few yards. 
A very handsome cousin of his lives in Para¬ 
guay, the Little Red Heron, with his fashion¬ 
able jacket of rusty orange, and his yellow beak 
He was chiefly seen perching in trees, where he 
looked as delightfully out of place as all the 
