COMMON HERON, 2 AR 
15 inch. It is absolutely impossible to distinguish the eggs of this 
species from those of the Purple Heron and the Great White Egret. 
Should the nests be approached, the old birds make little noise, but rise 
into the air and fly anxiously above the trees. Only one brood is reared 
in the year, 
The Heron obtains much of its food at night, especially when the 
moon is at the full. It feeds largely on fish, frogs, lizards, insects, small 
mammals, and occasionally a young bird. Dixon found the skeleton of a 
small wader in a nest of a Heron in Skye, and it is said to feed habitually 
on young Waterhens and Coots. It is a voracious feeder, and very 
rapidly digests the food it takes. Sometimes it may be seen wandering 
about on the beach at low water, searching amongst the stones and rocks 
for small crabs and shrimps. Its partiality for fish renders it objection- 
able to the river-keepers, by whom it is often shot ; and in the breeding- 
season, when the hungry voracious young are ever clamouring for food, 
it levies no small tribute on the fish-ponds and streams. The Heron often 
has to fly for a considerable distance to obtain food for its young, and 
may then be seen passing through the air almost as regularly as the Rook. 
The smell in a Heronry arising from the decayed fish, especially on a 
warm close day in late spring, is very objectionable. 
The colour of the plumage of the adult male Heron is a mixture of 
black, white, and slate-grey. The black is distributed in the following 
manner :—On each side of the head a broad streak extends to the nape, 
where it is prolonged into a crest, ornamented with two or more long 
narrow feathers; a row of spots extends down the fore neck, leading to a 
broad stripe on each side of the breast and belly; the primaries, primary- 
coverts, and secondaries are dark slate-grey, approaching black; the rest 
of the wing-coverts, axillaries, fianks, rump, upper tail-coverts, tail, 
scapulars, and mantle are pale slate-grey. The feathers of the lower back 
are also slate-grey, shading into-white at the tip, which is prolonged into 
a narrow plume, as are also the feathers on the lower neck. The rest of 
the plumage is white. Bull, a bare space before the eye, and irides yellow; 
Jegs and feet reddish brown, suffused with reddish yellow on the tibia; 
claws black. The female resembles the male in colour, but is slightly 
smaller, and the crest is not quite so long. In the young in first plumage 
the forehead and crown are grey instead of white ; the crest is very short 
and dark slate-grey ; the slate-grey of the back is more or less suffused 
with brown, the elongated feathers of the back and neck are absent, and 
the black on the breast and belly is only represented by greyish-brown 
stripes. The upper mandible is more or less brown, and the legs and feet 
are dark grey, suffused with yellowish green, especially on the tibia. After 
the first moult, which is completed by the time the bird is a year old, the 
