THE GREAT HERON. HT 



ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 



" The Heron," says an English writer, " is a very great 

 devourer of fish, and does more mischief in a pond than an 

 otter. People who have kept Herons, have had the curio, 

 sity to number the fish they feed them with into a tub of 

 water, and counting them again afterwards, it has been fbuud 

 that they will eat up fifty moderate dace and roaches in a 

 day. It has been found, that in carp-ponds visited by this 

 bird, one Heron will eat up a thousand store carp in a 

 year ; and will hunt them so close, as to let very few escape. 

 The readiest method of destroying this mischievous bird, is 

 by fishing for him in the manner of pike, with a baited 

 hook. When the haunt of the Heron is found out, three 

 or four small roach, or dace, are to be procured, and each 

 of them is to be baited on a wire, with a strong hook at the 

 xiud, entering the wire just at the gills, and letting it run 

 just under the skin to the tail ; the fish will live in this 

 manner for five or six days, which is a very essential thing ; 

 for if it be dead, the Heron will not touch it. A strong 

 line is then to be prepared of silk and wire twisted together, 

 and is to be about two yards long ; tie this to the wire that 

 holds the hook, and to the other end of it there is to be tied 

 a stone of about a pound weight ; let three or four of these 

 baits be sunk in different shallow parts of the pond, and, in 

 a night or two's time, the Heron will not fail to be 

 with Mie or other of them." 



