HERON AND WATER RAT. 31 



which entails unmerited persecution and the gra- 

 dual diminution of the race. Even the heron is 

 not such an unmitigated poacher as many persons 

 are inclined to believe; I have had good oppor- 

 tunities of observing him here, and still better in 

 Ireland, and I have rarely known him to take a 

 fish of greater weight than one pound. His 

 structure adapts him for wading to a certain 

 depth into the shallow waters on the borders of 

 lakes, ponds, and ditches, while his spider-like 

 patience in watching for his prey, and his cat-like 

 activity in securing it, enable him to thin the 

 shoals of gudgeons, eels, roach, and minnows, that 

 pass along the margins, and occasionally venture 

 wdthin his reach: but the deep waters beyond are 

 an unknown region to him; there the carp and 

 tench may swim in security, as far as he is con- 

 cerned, and the trout and perch pursue the fly, or 

 spring into the air, within a tantalizing distance 

 of his hungry beak : so long as they do not ven- 

 ture within the range of that unerring weapon 

 they are safe. But how will it fare with that 

 water rat, which, returning to its subterranean 

 habitation from a visit to yonder meadow, is now 

 about to cross the brook, — 



" ripse ulterioris amore 1 " 



How fearlessly it commits itself to the stream ! 



