GANNET.— COMMON HERON. 309 



about two feet from them, and took them from underneath, 

 swallowing them whole, head first. After this he became 

 very tame and would follow me round the pond, taking 

 greedily pieces of bullock^s liver, which he swallowed as 

 readily as fish. He frequently sat on the bank in the daytime 

 with his head under his scapulars ^. Should a leaf or twig 

 fall from a tree he immediately swam out to see what it was, 

 and in swimming used his legs alternately. When frightened, 

 he would erect his tail considerably above the water, as he 

 did also when food was thrown to him. After swallowing 

 anything, he invariably washed his bill, often immersing the 

 whole head and neck. T^Iot long after this, I was very sorry 

 to find, him dead on the bank. He would attack stransrers. 

 and I have no doubt had so molested a man whom I had set 

 to work near the pond that he had kicked him ofi*, which of 

 course he would not own. I found, however, on taking off 

 the skin, that the Gannct had a large quantity of extravasated 

 blood on the muscles of the breast, and that the bird was a 

 male. 



HERODIONES. 

 AEDEID^. 



COMMON HERON. 



Ardea cinerea. 



Sussex is well supplied with this bird, there being in it three 

 large heronries, and a few smaller ones. Its food, when in 

 a natural state, consists of fish (especially eels), frogs, snakes, 



* A bird never puts its head under its wing, though it is popularly 

 supposed to do so ; it merely buries it under the feathers of the shoulder. 



