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WADING BIRDS. 191 
their long legs appear as if quite in the way, and they 
sway backwards and forwards like a pendulum for a few 
times until they have found the centre of gravity. 
This little colony never increased in numbers; for 
some years no young were reared at all, the egos being 
destroyed by the carrion crows, who seemed to have a 
particular spite against them. I have seen a heron when 
flying over the island, give active chase to a hooded 
crow that came by, pursuing it fiercely, and uttering 
shrill cries, as if aware of hoodie’s propensity. They 
cannot, however, suffer from its depredations, as the 
hooded crow leaves us for the sea-side before the eggs of 
the heron are laid. 
The herons on the island did not by any means con- 
fine themselves to Thoresby, but frequented the lakes in 
Welbeck and Rufford Parks, and the surrounding streams. 
I have written of them in the past, for I regret to say 
all the birds were shot by the keepers in 1856. Their 
depredations were so great, both in the lake and in the 
streams, that it was determined to sacrifice them, and 
one by one they became victims to the proscription. 
A few years since a heron was found dead on the 
edge of a fish-pond at Walling Wells, the seat of Sir 
T. W, White. The way in which it lost its life was very 
singular. In the pursuit of its prey it had struck its 
bill completely through the body of a large eel, near the 
head, without immediately killing it, but the eel in its 
death struggles had coiled itself round the neck of the 
heron, as well as round some aquatic plants on the 
bank, and both were found dead in that position. 
Curiously enough, an exactly similar occurrence was re- 
corded and figured in the Illustrated London News 
in January last. 
