—=—- te 
, 
OF CHESHIRE AND NORTH WALES. 229 
panied by these and the heron, Mr. STRETCH was going his 
usual rounds with his lantern to see all safe, when suddenly the 
dogs bolted a rat, and in their scurry knocked down the poor 
heron and immediately commenced to tear it to pieces, 
thinking, no doubt, that it was the original object of their chase. 
I need not say that my friend much regretted the loss of his 
pet bird. 
Although the Heron has been known to swallow larger objects 
than the Russian kitten already referred to, I can only find a 
single record of a Heron having been found that had choked 
itself. In this instance the bird was found choked by a full- 
grown water-rat, which had fixed itself so firmly in the bird’s 
throat that it could not be withdrawn. I am inclined to think 
that if the rat was swallowed alive, as was most probably the 
case, it might have bitten the Heron, and so disabled it that it 
died. Certainly a full-grown rat seems a large object for the 
bird to swallow, but it is small in comparison with the previous 
records, or the following: ‘‘Stowed away in the gullet of one 
individual” — as recorded in “The Field”— “were eleven perch, 
averaging three inches in length;” ‘‘and another had regaled 
itself with a nice little pike, eighteen inches in length, setting 
teeth and spines at defiance.” 
ANATOMY. 
The gullet of the Heron has an enormous capacity, and it 
seems that no matter how full this is filled everything is so 
arranged that the bird can bend its neck so as to be able to rest 
its head on its shoulders, and then apparently sleep till all is 
digested. I mention this as I wish to call attention to the 
anatomical structure of the neck, which is really very remarkable. 
If the skin of the neck of a Heron be carefully removed, and 
the neck afterwards be stretched to its fullest extent, it will be 
seen that the course of the windpipe (Z7achea), and gullet 
(Esophagus), are perfectly straight; while the neck (Vertebre) 
assumes the form shown in the illustration, and no amount of 
stretching will make it perfectly straight without destroying it. 
[Plate 1, fig. 1.] The anterior end of the gullet is attached to 
the ventral surface of the neck until it reaches the fifth and sixth 
vertebrz, over which it suddenly crosses, on the right side, to 
the dorsal surface of the neck, along which it extends to the 
twelfth and thirteenth vertebrz, over which it again crosses on 
the same side to the ventral surface, and finally enters the body. 
The trachea, which follows the same course, is attached to the 
ventral surface of the esophagus. Fig. 2 shows the neck of the 
bird in its natural resting position, and it will be seen that it is 
bent downwards and backwards, causing the central portion of 
the neck to become considerably arched, and were it not for the 
peculiar lateral and dorsal arrangement of the trachea and 
esophagus, these latter would receive an unpleasant pressure, 
