224 Northern Observations of Inland Birds 



a heron stand with its neck curved, and the bird is seldom 

 seen in repose. 



Like all carnivorous birds and beasts, this bird lives 

 amidst fluctuations of scarcity and plenty. Owing to its 

 scraggy build, it is usually regarded as a much starved 

 creature, but considering the number of ancient recipes 

 for medicines and the like in which ** the fat of the 

 heron " figures, one might be pardoned for concluding 

 that fat herons were not by any means a rare commodity. 

 The heron is a bird of cold and draughty occupations, 

 and such fat as it is so fortunate as to possess is doubtless 

 provided by nature as a supplementary means of resisting 

 the cold. 



In times of scarcity herons will readily gobble up any- 

 thing they can swallow, and considering the elasticity of 

 their gullets, their menu is a fairly extensive one — water 

 voles, snakes, ducklings, frogs, mice, in addition to fish. 

 Mrs. Stewart, the stalker's wife on the Auchmore Estate, 

 Killin, Perthshire, was one day walking at the river side 

 when a frightful squealing at the water's edge attracted 

 her notice, and looking down she saw a heron doing its 

 best to swallow a stoat, which was very whole-heartedly 

 resisting. It is more than likely that the stoat was the 

 aggressor in the first case, but certainly it would be 

 foolish to endeavour to lay down fixed rules as concerns 

 the diet of a bird which will attempt to devour one of 

 these evil-smelHng musk bearers. 



Like rooks, one or two herons will sometimes nest 

 in solitude, endeavouring evidently to start a heronry of 

 their own, but the few attempts of this kind that have 

 come before my notice have proved unsuccessful, and 

 after a year or two the birds have abandoned the new 

 site. I suppose there are less than thirty heronries in 

 the whole of England, which would seem to support a 

 previous conclusion that the birds travel great distances 



