BROWN- PAPER PARCELS 85 



this structure, Frank Buckland — whose half-part 

 edition of White's *'Selborne" I have at hand 

 — says: '*The use of it is certainly not for pre- 

 hension, as was formerly supposed, but rather, as 

 its structure indicates, for a comb. Among the 

 feathers of the heron and bittern can always be 

 found a considerable quantity of powder. The 

 bird, probably, uses this comb to keep the powder 

 and feathers in proper order." Why "certainly".? 

 And how much of observation does "probably" 

 contain? This is what Dickens has described as 

 making a brown-paper parcel of a subject, and 

 putting it on a shelf, labelled, " Not to be opened." 

 But, " By your leave, wax," and I shall open as many 

 such parcels as I choose. It is possible, indeed, that 

 the heron's serrated claw may not be, now, of any 

 special use. It may be a survival, merely, of some- 

 thing that once was. If, however, it is used in a 

 special manner, what this manner is can only be 

 settled by good affirmative evidence, and of this, as 

 Frank Buckland does not give any, we may assume 

 he had none to give. Instead we have " certainly " 

 and " probably." But I, now, have " certainly " seen 

 the heron use his foot to secure an eel, which had 

 proved too large and vigorous for him to retain in 

 the bill, and which he had dropped, after just 

 managing to fly away with it to the mud of the 

 shore. Here, therefore, " probably " the serrated 

 claw was of some assistance, and the fact that this 

 heron flew to the shore, whenever he caught an 

 unwieldy eel, and dropped it there, goes to show 

 that this was his regular plan, viz. to put it down 

 and help hold it with his foot, or two feet. There 



