THE COMMON HERON. 35 



At the foot of the trees were a number of food 

 pellets, for Herons, like Owls and Hawks, get rid of the 

 bones and other indigestible portions of their swallowed 

 prey by ejecting them through the throat. If carefully 

 examined these castings are a fairly true index to the bill 

 of fare of the ejector, but it must be borne in mind 

 that food possessing no parts adamantine enough to 

 withstand the gastric juices of a Heron's " stomach " 

 will be unrepresented in these pellets. Thus the bones 

 of small fishes appear to be dissolved, it being principally 

 the larger ones and those of animals and birds which are 

 found in these pellets. On the whole these castings are 

 far tougher and more glutinous than those of Owls, and 

 are moreover very irregular in shape as well as size. 



It is significant that the matrix is nearly always the 

 tough wiry hair of rats, whose bones also naturally 

 figure abundantly in the collection, and the birds must 

 therefore do a good deal of useful work, for which they 

 receive little or no credit. 



Now the old birds began everywhere to arrive with 

 food, and all was turmoil. The owner of the invaded 

 nest approached, and though greeted with a wondrous 

 storm by the ravenous seven, did not appear to notice 

 the augment to her family, feeding them all without 

 favour. Then my bird returned, alighting in the branches 

 near, and regarded the empty nest for a while, then, ignoring 

 the odd chick's presence a few feet away, flew across to 

 the clamorous nest-full opposite, where she too fed the 

 multitude without discrimination. This was repeated 

 several times, until my chick, empty in stomach as he was, 

 lost heart, ceasing to take much interest in his mother's 

 actions, and sitting stolidly on the branches brooded 

 over his iU-luck (Plate 26). 



