Introduction 1 1 



this name implies/' This absurd beUef is certainly not 

 so widely held as once it was, but it is far from being 

 extinct in all parts of Europe. Never was there a clearer 

 illustration of the adage — '* Give a lie half an hour's 

 start, and it will take an age to catch it.'' The lie is as 

 old as Aristotle and i^Jian, and is perpetuated in the name 

 given to this harmless bird in the language of Greece, 

 Rome, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and other countries. 

 Nay, has not science endorsed the slander by fixing upon 

 the nightjar the opprobious title of Caprimulgiis — the 

 goat-milker ? 



From the angler's point of view, the heron's Hfe is 

 one long career of crime, yet I, although a hardened 

 angler, can bear testimony to a redeeming trait in that 

 fine bird which seems to have escaped the author's 

 observation. A few years ago the meadows beside the 

 tower course of the Annan were infested by swarms of the 

 short-eared vole. Day after day during the summer 

 months, herons might be seen stalking about the pasture, 

 gobbling voles as fast as they could catch them. 



I note that Mr. Mortimer Batten endeavours to render 

 in print the cry of some of his favourite birds. The 

 buzzard utters " kew-kew," and so forth. I venture to 

 think that the true voice of any bird can never be 

 represented by any combination of vowels and consonants. 

 Vowels alone, perhaps, but not in combination with 

 consonants, for the simple reason that consonants require 

 teeth and lips to be brought into play, and birds have 

 neither. This question, however, can only be determined 

 by the use of a gramophone, and it might prove difficult 

 to induce a curlew or a whooper to play up to that 

 instrument. 



But I must not take advantage of the author's courtesy 

 in giving me a seat on his coach by airing my own views 

 on matters about which he is so competent a judge. I 



