GREAT BLUE HERON. 71

The lank grey form stands motionless in the rippling tide until the unwary fishes forget that the crooked shadow is a thing of life at all. Then, slowly the huge, rapier-like bill, poised on the slender arched neck, is lowered to the level of the water, and with rapid, but silent move— ments, the Sportive finnies are conveyed one by one to his pouch. I have disturbed a Heron after such a “haul,” and he was unable to rise from the ground until he had first disgorged ten good sized fishes from his crop. In the latter part of summer, the young, full-fledged, are down to the fishingr with their parents. Then, on a glowing autumn evening, when the broad reach of the weedy bay is all glinting with golden light, the tall, light-colored forms of scores of these birds, standing all over its surface, and enlarged in ap— pearance by the vividly reflected light, look more like phantoms of the deep than the very practical fishers that they are. When the tide is up, “cranes” rest themselves roosting on trees in the vicinity of the water, or go to the meadows for a meal of grasshoppers.

The American Bittern (Bantams mugz'lam) is

much less common than the Heron. A few