I50 BIRDS OF THE WAVE AND WOODLAND 



To these accidents probably is due the superstition alluded to 

 by Marvel : 



" The heron from the ash's top, 

 The eldest of its young lets drop, 

 As if it, stork-like, did pretend 

 That tribute to its lord to send." 



In the old cruel days when falconry was for a time so 

 " fashionable," the heron — or rather the heronsewe, hornsea, 

 hornsey or hernshaw, for these are the older names of the 

 bird we call heron and hern — was the fowl chiefly flown at 

 with the largest and fiercest falcons, and the penalties for 

 killing the bird, except with hawks or the long-bow, were very 

 severe. But modern falconers, whose sport is now as humane as 

 sport can ever be, have to be content with water-fowl for their 

 prime flights. For the heron is annually becoming rarer as a 

 wild bird, and before long will probably only be seen in the 

 vicinity of private heronries, where the courtesies of country 

 neighbourhood protect it from wilful molestation, and suffice 

 to preserve for all lovers of Nature the charmine sieht 

 of these birds, by some hill-bound tarn, " sole-sitting on the 

 shores of old romance," seated aloft on " the pines, the 

 heron's ancient home," or, like the spirit of tranquil solitude, 

 beautifying the pleasant reaches of a river. 



