140 HERON. 



for they announce the approach of the pilchards, and their 

 movements show the course the shoal is taking. The Gannet 

 feeds entirely on fish. The birds seize their prey by dropping 

 down upon them suddenly from the air, and seldom miss their aim. 

 So closely indeed do the birds follow the fish, that they frequently 

 get entangled and caught in the long sea nets of the fishermen. 



The Gannet is very rarely seen in Herefordshire. There is 

 only one recorded instance of its occurrence. A young Gannet, in 

 its first year's grey plumage, was found by a cottager near Peter- 

 church, in 1 88 1. It was in a very exhausted state, and was caught 

 alive, and kept on meat and herrings for some six weeks, when it 

 died. The bird was stuffed, and is now in the possession of the 

 Rev. T. Prosser Powell, of Peterchurch. 



[Genus — Pelecanus.] 

 [Pelecanus onocrotalus — White Pelican.] 



One shot in Horsey Fen, May, 1863, probably an escape, but 

 bones have been exhumed more than once from the Norfolk fens. 



Order— HERODIONES. 

 Family— ARDEID^. 

 Genus— ARDEA. 

 ARDEA CINEREA— Heron. 



Unhappy bird ! our fathers' prime delight, 

 Who fenced thine eyry round with sacred laws ; 

 No mighty princes now disdain to wear 

 Thy waving crest, the mark of high command. 



S0UEB.YILLK— Field Sports, 



Long-necked Heron, dread of nimble eels. 



Leyden — A Ibania. 



Grey swamps and pools, waste places of the Hern. 



Tennyson— J^nic?. 



