GRAY HERON. 



22» 



in mind that throughout the greater portion of the year it derives its chief 

 support from those insatiate foes to fruit and vegetables — slugs, snails, and 

 the larvje of insects, immense numbers of which it must of necessity destroy. 



(To he continued.) 



THE GRAY HERON, {ARDEA CINEBEA.) 



BY HENRY MOSES, ESQ., M. D. 



Many of us delight in studying the habits of particular birds. The Gray 

 Heron has ever been a favourite of mine. I like him for the wild, romantic, 

 and solitary sort of life he leads. He may be called a meditative bird, this 

 Gray Heron of ours — the last of a tall race who once peopled our fens — Lord 

 Paramount of the marshes. His near relative, the Little Night Heron, has 

 long since disappeared, and all we know of the Egret, the Spoonbill, and the 

 Bittern, as inhabitants of Great Britain, and companions of his ancestors, is 

 from books, or occasional reports we hear of such and such strangers being 

 shot by Sir somebody's gamekeeper, in some out-of-the-way locality, I never 

 see my lonely friend standing motionless upon one leg by the margin of some 

 rushy pool, with his neck retracted, and his powerful bill resting upon his 

 sternum, but I fancy I can almost divine his thoughts and read his meditations. 

 Is he mourning over the speedy extirpation of his race? When stationed 

 thus, for hours at a time, I believe our Gray Heron is not always intent 

 upon watching what is passing in the water below him. I believe he is given 

 to napping, for he has frequently allowed me to walk close upon him before 

 he was fully aroused to a sense of his dangerous situation, or thought proper 

 to 'move on.' We must not forget that our friend is nocturnal in its habits, 

 and angles much on moonlight nights, so we can pardon his day drowsiness. 

 The Barn-door Owl, I suspect, could tell us about these wanderings of his. 

 The Gray Heron is always alone. The Snipe and the Teal occasionally may 

 keep him company in severe weather, but they like not his hunting ground, 

 and are soon away back again to the purling brook of the mountain, where 

 there is less to fear from their common enemy, man. 



About four miles from St. Asaph, at Bodryddan, the seat of William 

 Shipley Conwy, Esq., there is a very large heronry close to the mansion house. 

 The generous and much-beloved proprietor of this fair domain has taken no 

 common interest in the protection and preservation of this rare colony of 

 Herons. It is enough to say they are allowed to bring up their children 

 undisturbed by the genus homo. Blessings shower upon him and all who 

 delight in preserving for the gratification of the naturalist the beautiful birds 

 of our own fair land. It may appear singular that so timid and shy a bird 

 as the Gray Heron should have selected so frequented and public a place for 

 the rearing of their young. Doubtless time has given them confidence in their 

 protection, for here they annually resort during the breeding- season, and famous 



VOL. lY. 2 G 



