THE HERON ACTIVE 83 



suppose, feed a good deal on frogs, or even less 

 aquatic prey — moles, mice, shrews, as I believe, for 

 I have found the remains of these under their trees, 

 in pellets which seemed to me far too large, as well 

 as too numerous, to be those of owls, the only other 

 possible bird : yet I have not observed them in the 

 pursuit of " such small deer," and herons look for 

 their food far more, and wait for it far less than is 

 generally supposed. See one, now, at the river. For 

 a minute or two, after coming down, he stands with 

 his neck drawn in between his shoulders, and then, 

 with a stealthy step, begins to walk along under the 

 bank, advancing slowly, and evidently on the look- 

 out. Getting a little more into the stream, he 

 stands a few moments, again advances, then with 

 body projecting, horizontally, on either side of the 

 legs — like the head of a mallet — and neck a little 

 outstretched, he stops once more. At once he makes 

 a dart forward, so far forward that he almost — nay, 

 sometimes quite — overbalances, the neck shoots out 

 as from a spring, and instantly he has a fair-sized 

 fish in his bill, which, after a little tussling and 

 quiet insistence — gone through like a grave formal 

 etiquette — he swallows. Directly afterwards he 

 washes his beak in the stream, and then drinks, a 

 little, as though for a sauce to his fish. There is, 

 now, a brisk satisfied rufile of the plumage, after 

 which he hunches himself up, again, and remains 

 thus, resting, for a longer or shorter time. In 

 swallowing the fish, the long neck is stretched for- 

 wards and upwards, and, when it has swallowed it, 

 the bird gives a sort of start, and looks most comi- 

 cally satisfied. There is that about him — something 



