BIRDS OF THE WAVE AND WOODLAND 143 



sees a mouse below it, upon which it then drops with 

 Hghtning speed, or else decides that there is nothing there, 

 when it moves on a little further and hovers aeain, thus 

 beating a field or moor thoroughly over before it leaves it. 

 And while it is thus engaged the gamekeeper steals upon 

 it and shoots it, and, taking it home, the mutton-headed 

 ignoramus that he is, nails it up on his " tree," in the 

 company of that other good friend of man, the owl. 



" Long-necked Heron, dread of nimble eels" 



Leyden. 



" Unhappy bird ! our fathers' prime delight, 

 Who fenced thine eyry round with sacred laws, 

 Nor mighty princes now disdain to ivear 

 Thy ivaving crest, the mark of high command.^^ 



SOMERVILLE. 



But the gamekeeper's enormities reach their climax when 

 he murders that noble bird the heron. His master perhaps has 

 a field or two that runs down to a stream, and in the advertise- 

 ment, by which the thrifty farmer makes annually a few pounds, 

 of "so many acres of shooting to let," there is added, the " rio-ht 

 of fishing in the river so-and-so." So if by any chance a poor 

 heron, strayed from the upper reaches where some nobleman 

 or gentleman preserves this fine bird, comes on the farmer's 



