228 THE HERON AND HERONRIES 
size at once. The nest is very large, often measuring four feet 
in diameter; it is composed of large sticks and lined with 
various materials. Those that J examined in the Eaton 
Heronry had little or no lining in them; one nest was lined 
with a few dead stems of the Purple Loosestrife (Lythram 
Salicaria, L.), which grows abundantly in and near the wood; 
the others had nothing but thin sticks broken very short. 
Foop. 
The Heron is almost omnivorous. Some very curious details 
of the food of the Heron have been placed on record from time 
to time which would form a small volume in themselves. The 
angler, of course, has not forgotten to mention trout in the bill 
of fare, forgetting the good work the Heron does in clearing 
off young pike and eels, both of which are very destructive to- 
other fresh-water fish. A friend of mine, Mr. Srretcu, of 
Ledsham, three years ago procured from the Hooton Heronry 
a young Heron, which, when first taken from the nest, refused 
to eat anything offered it. To keep it alive my friend was 
obliged to cram food into its gullet as the only means of 
keeping it. The bird, however, soon helped itself to food, and 
eventually became remarkably docile. Its food consisted 
almost entirely of animals; it never tasted fish from the time it 
was taken from the nest until its death two years after. Mr. 
STRETCH tells me that this bird would swallow as many as five 
nearly full-grown rats at a single meal, and that it had a very 
peculiar habit of dipping its food in water before swallowing it; 
for this purpose, a large earthen jar of water was always kept in 
the garden. 
If the bird had been kept for a few days without food it would 
generally swallow the first object without dipping it in the water, 
but as a rule it would carry its food—no matter how far from its 
reservoir—and give it a good shake in the water before swallow- 
ing it. To show how omnivorous this bird was, two Russian 
kittens were introduced into the garden. No sooner were these 
valuable pets introduced than Mrs. H. succeeded in making a 
meal of one by swallowing it entire, and had she not been 
discovered in the act she would have made a second course of 
the other kitten. This bird afterwards became so remarkably 
tame that it often proved a hindrance to theworkmen. If the latter 
were digging in the garden the bird would be ever with them, 
on the Jook out for any worms or insects that they might turn up. 
To use Mr. STRETCH’s own words, ‘It was tamer than his 
dogs, and, like them, would follow him almost everywhere.” 
To the dogs it was a perfect terror. If any food was given 
them in her presence she would be sure to take it from them; 
even if they carried it into their kennels, her long neck and 
powerful beak proving more than a match for them. But 
nevertheless the dogs were the cause of her death: accom- 
