HERON ALIGHTING ON ITS NEST. 27 



sudden 1}^ dropped again; their great staring eyes, 

 writhing necks, and naked bodies ; altogether con- 

 tributed to render their appearance irresistibly 

 ludicrous : but their excitement seemed to have 

 reached its utmost when one of the old birds, 

 which had flapped round the nest for some time, 

 at last prepared to alight, gradually allowing his 

 outstretched legs to fall from the horizontal to 

 the perpendicular, and working his Avings with 

 increased violence and rapidity until he found a 

 firm footing on the margin of the nest, w^hen, 

 opening his beak, he immediately disgorged seve- 

 ral small eels, which were greedily devoured by 

 the three young birds. The eels appeared to be 

 very small; but I had ere long an opportunity 

 of observing that even when a fish is of a tole- 

 rable size, the heron contrives to conceal it within 

 the elastic pouch to which, in so many birds, the 

 dilatable skin of the throat can be readily con- 

 verted ; for many minutes had not elapsed before 

 I saw an old heron alight on a more distant tree, 

 and opening his mouth, drop a fish, which ap- 

 peared to be above half a pound weight, into the 

 bottom of his nest. I had, it is true, only a pass- 

 ing glimpse of it as it fell, and therefore at the 

 moment could make only a rough guess at its 

 weight and species, but it appeared to be a 

 bream, or large roach, and of such a shape and 



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