Habits of the Heron. 457 



mantle from the standing pool" was neither useful nor 

 pleasant, I ordered the ponds to be drained, and a plantation 

 to be made in the space of ground which they had occupied. 

 Had I known as much then as I know now of the valuable 

 services of the heron, and had there been a good heronry 

 near the place, I should not have made the change. The 

 draining of the ponds did not seem to lessen the number of 

 rats in the brook ; but, soon after the herons had settled here 

 to breed, the rats became extremely scarce ; and now I rarely 

 see one in the place where formerly I could observe numbers 

 sitting on the stones at the mouth of their holes, as soon as 

 the sun had gone down below the horizon. I often watch the 

 herons on the banks of some other store-ponds with feelings 

 of delight; and nothing would grieve me more than to see 

 the lives of these valuable and ornamental birds sacrificed to 

 the whims and caprice of man. 



I know, and freely avow, that the herons will catch fish 

 (especially eels), whenever those fish frequent the shallow 

 water ; still these birds make ample amends for their little 

 depredations, by preventing the increase of rats and frogs. 

 Little, indeed, must be those depredations : for fishermen are 

 allowed to come here, during the summer, in unrestricted 

 numbers, and the herons have their nests in the trees which 

 hang over the water; still there is always a most plentiful 

 supply of fish. 



If country gentlemen would grant protection to the heron, 

 it would be to us, in some sort, what the stork formerly was, 

 and is now, to our Continental neighbours ; namely, an orna- 

 mental and a useful bird. Though it certainly would not be 

 so domestic as the stork, still the protection afforded it would 

 tend considerably to change its present habits. Nothing but 

 the roar of guns, the prejudices of pond-owners, and the bar- 

 barity of gamekeepers, has rendered the heron a shy, de- 

 graded, and devoted bird. 



Walton Hall, April 29. 1835. 



[" For many years Didlington Hall [in Norfolk] has been 

 the only place in England, and almost in Europe, at which 

 the ancient amusement of flying hawks at herns or herons has 

 been practised. It has been customary to turn off the birds 

 which were taken alive, with a ring attached to one leg, 

 showing the time and place at which they have been cap- 

 tured. It is said that some of the birds have afterwards been 

 killed in Germany. In a late Bristol paper there is an ac- 



