168 



ARDEIDiE. 



water fish, water-rats, and water-beetles, may fairly be set 

 off against its depredations in trout-streams. When the 

 occasion presents itself it will undoubtedly devour the young 

 of water-fowl. Mr. Newcome told Mr. H. Stevenson that he 

 once knew a Heron to swallow a Stoat, but in this case the 

 prey was promptly disgorged. For another example of " the 

 biter bit " the Author was indebted to the kindness of the 

 late Eev. W. Alderson, of Ashton, near Sheffield, for the 

 use of a clever drawing, from which the vignette below was 

 taken. A Heron was seen one evening going to a piece of 





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^^"^^ 



water to feed ; the spot was visited the next morning, when 

 it was discovered that the Heron had struck its sharp beak 

 through the head of an eel, piercing both eyes ; the eel thus 

 held had coiled itself so tightly round the neck of the Heron 

 as to stop the bird's respiration, and both were dead. 



When fishing, the Heron stands motionless in shallow 

 water, with the head drawn back towards the shoulders, 

 ready to strike or seize with its sharp beak whatever may 

 happen to come within its reach. If an eel chance to be 

 the object caught, the Heron has been seen to quit the water 

 to make the more sure of the prey, by beating it against 



