HERONS. 



355 



The type of this sub-family — 



The Common Heron {Ardea cinered), though measuring three feet in 

 length from the point of its beak to the extremity of the tail, and four feet 

 and a half from the tip of one wing to that of the other, weighs but three 

 pounds and a half ; consequently, though not formed for rapid flight, its wings 

 present so large a surface that it can support itself aloft with little exertion, 

 and is enabled without fatigue to mount high in air when pursued by its 

 natural enemies, the falcons, to whom it would fall an easy prey if it could 



Fig. 179.— The Common Heron (Ardea a'aerea). 



only skim along the plains, on account of the largeness of the mark presented 

 to their downward swoop. The heron is a successful fisher, but a fisher in 

 shallow waters only, — to human anglers a very pattern of patience and re- 

 signation : up to its knees in the water, motionless as a statue, with the neck 

 slightly stretched out, and the eye steadily fixed but wide awake to the motion 

 of anything that has life, the heron may be seen in the ford of a river, the 

 margin of a lake or sea-side pool, or on the bank of an estuar)'. Suddenly its 

 head is darted forward with unerring aim, a small fish is captured and instantly 

 swallowed head foremost. An eel of large size requires different treatment, 



