86 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



flesh picked from the bones. The Heron will wade until the 

 body is afloat and even swim for a short distance ; I have 

 several times seen a bird alight on the water and swim, once to 

 rob a Grebe of its meal. The head and neck of the bird 

 shoots up at once on the least suspicion of alarm, and the 

 great wings are unfolded, but the actual launch is slow ; the 

 flight is deliberate, but the strokes are so powerful that the 

 speed attained is considerable ; in a few seconds, croaking in 

 alarm, the bird is far away. Almost immediately the head is 

 drawn back and the long legs trailed, the normal position 

 in flight. The call, a resounding /r^;//^, differs only slightly 

 from the cry of alarm ; it is frequently uttered on the wing. 



The nuptial dances of cranes are well known, and possibly 

 the Heron may join with others in display at times. I 

 have, at the end of January, seen a bird perform a pas seul 

 before five companions. It skipped lightly along the bank, 

 beating the air with its wings, first in one direction and then 

 back, but the performance created no visible enthusiasm. At 

 the heronry, where the birds gather in January, groups stand 

 together on the grass, attending to their toilet. On the sides 

 of the breast and in other places the Heron has patches of what 

 are called " powder down," the use of which has caused 

 discussion ; they are powdery brittle feathers of a waxy nature. 

 Mr. J. M. Dewar, who has watched the birds carefully, believes 

 that the powder is transferred on the bill to the plumage, 

 used as a cosmetic, and probably acts as " proofing" against 

 wet. 



The nests are usually in a colony, huge platforms with shallow 

 cups, in the branches of tall trees ; occasionally they are built 

 on the ground, on rocky cliffs, or in marshes. Large sticks are 

 used, with smaller but seldom soft material for lining ; Prof. 

 Newstead found dead stems of purple loosestrife, and I have 

 seen large twigs and bracken. By the middle of February or 

 early in March the four to five pale greenish blue eggs (Plate 44) 



