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Updated: June 17, 2025
Pelicans and flamingoes, geese and ducks, storks and herons, ibises and cranes, bitterns and lapwings, flew in dark flocks of manifold forms from all directions.
The handsomest was the richly colored tiger bittern. Two other species were so unlike ordinary herons that I did not recognize them as herons at all until Cherrie told me what they were. One had a dark body, a white-speckled or ocellated neck, and a bill almost like that of an ibis. The other looked white, but was really mauve-colored, with black on the head.
"My dear Wright, I have many obligations to you; and, if I have any good fortune, you shall be the first to share it with me. As for you, cousin Goodenough, I don't bear malice against you for laughing at me and my herons' feathers, and my silver sprigs, and my sheep's jackets, and my thistles: shake hands, man; you shall have a share in our scheme, if you please."
In late afternoon, when the long shadows of palms stretched their blue-black bars across the terra-cotta roads, the foliage of the green bamboo islands was dotted here and there with a scattering of young herons, white and blue and parti-colored.
Vivian was anxious to see the Herons before any newspaper report should reach them; and he therefore hurried the seaman up to Strathleckie after a hasty breakfast at the hotel. But at Strathleckie, disappointment awaited him. Everybody was out except the baby and the servants. The whole party had gone to spend a long day at the house of a friend: they would not be back till evening.
To the right again and behind, were more marshes, broken only in the distance by the towers of Haarlem and the spires of village churches, marshes where the snipe and bittern boomed, the herons fed, and in summer the frogs croaked all night long.
"But Mr Bootherboomp!" roared Tom, bursting into a second fit of laughter. "It's butterbump, Mr Marston. It's what they call those tall brown birds something like herons. What do you call them in London?" said Dick. "Oh, bitterns!" "Yes, that's it. Come on!" "Nay," said Dave; "I don't think you gentlemen would care for such poor sport. On'y a few fish'." "You never mind about that!
Wild ducks, geese, the herons, mud-hens, sandpipers, and curlews are marsh and shore birds that feed and wade in the shallow salt water, and nest on the banks or, like the heron, in trees near the bay. The heron is a frog-catcher, and he will stand very still on his long legs and patiently wait till the frog, thinking him gone, swims near.
And here are twisted serpents; and stately swans, with answering curves in their bowed necks, as if they had snake's blood under their white feathers; and grave, high-shouldered herons standing on one foot like cripples, and looking at life round them with the cold stare of monumental effigies. A very odd page indeed!
Then he cursed and swore that he knew nothing whatever of these herons' feathers which he was making such a fuss about. Meanwhile the band stood round with cocked muskets, and as the burghers now pressed forward, to save their leader, if any violence were offered, Konnemann called out, "Give the word, master shall I shoot down the churl?"
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