o- 
32 AT A HERONRY NEAR LONDON 
lands, almost always at night, in search of 
food.1. And indeed it would not take a heron 
more than a quarter of an hour to fly ten 
miles. The long-legged birds stand perfectly 
motionless in the water for long periods some- 
times, until they see their hapless prey, when 
that fatal strong and pointed beak swiftly 
strikes with unerring aim (as Ted had almost 
experienced in his own person). I have 
watched them thus standing on lonely moun- 
tain tarns in North Wales and elsewhere, 
and if I were fishing at daybreak for salmon 
or trout, I was sure to come upon one that 
had not given up feeding yet, always solitary, 
standing on the river bank watching for fish. 
More clever than I, too, were they at the 
gentleart. (But they don’t beat cormorants at 
this, I think. I have frequently noted the habits 
of cormorants 1m the sea round the coast of 
Guernsey and elsewhere, and in fresh water too, 
in the Welsh lakes and Killarney. Keepers 
and fishermen well know and detest them.) 
Herons are very wary and difficult of 
1 The notes at night, or any other time on the wing, 
sound like waank, waank. 
