The Common Night Heron 195 



and from the occiput springs a beautiful adornment of 

 generally three pure white narrow feathers, which reach to 

 the back. The bill is black ; the legs greenish-yellow ; 

 appearing of a clearer colour as the bird attains maturity. 



The specimen captured and brought to the writer 

 measured thirty-eight inches. It was a male bird in 

 adult plumage, and weighed over six pounds. The 

 shore gunner was secreted in a fissure of the rock facing 

 the harbour, over which the crowds of brent geese wing 

 their flight at eventide, and the heron was observed 

 making for the estuaries, which are formed by the sea 

 and mudflats, at half-flood tide, when a well-directed 

 shot brought it down. 



Herons are melancholy birds, remaining for hours on 

 the edge of the waters. But though they seek their food 

 in a solitary manner, they build their nests in company ; 

 as many as eighty nests have been seen on one tree. 



The word anapha, translated heron in Scripture, has 

 been variously understood. Some have rendered it the 

 kite, others the woodcock, the curlew, the crane. An- 

 other authority thought it to mean the mountain falcon, 

 the same that the Greeks call anopea, mentioned by 

 Homer, and this bears a strong resemblance to the 

 Hebrew name. 



An outcry raised in Scotland against the heron as a 

 destroyer of trout has led to strong protest by many in 

 the bird's favour as a destroyer of eels. " If," says one 

 writer, ' ' heron destroyers would only turn themselves 

 into rook destroyers, they would do much good to the 

 farmer and to sport in general, as the crows (rooks) are 

 far the greatest enemies of farmers, and are besides per- 

 secutors of the herons, who keep down the eels, which are 

 so destructive to the trout " The heron also feeds 

 largely on water-voles, shrews, and beetles which live in 

 the water, particularly Dytiscus marginalis and Geotrupes 

 stercorarius, and also grass. 



