THE HERON. 385 



thinned out a few trees in the winter, and in the following spring, 

 all the herons abandoned the nests of preceding years, and took up 

 their abode in an oak wood, but still within the enclosure of the park 

 wall. Here they remain, the colony consisting this year of thirty-six 

 nests. Considering how secure and sheltered they are, the number 

 of nests ought to be much larger ; but in freezing weather the birds 

 are apt to frequent the neighbouring brooks, and there they are shot 

 down by heartless gunmen and gamekeepers, who try their utmost 

 to exterminate from our Yorkshire Fauna this last large bird, so 

 pleasing to the sight, and so ornamental to the scenery, whether the 

 bird stands motionless on one leg for hours together, upon some giant 

 oak of the grove, or wends its way through ether when night sets in, 

 towards the narrow streams of rivers, where it is sure to make a hearty 

 meal on the myriads of young eels to be found there. 



Since my former observations on the heron were published, 

 one new fact has come within my notice. The sheet of water, 

 twenty-four acres in extent, which flows round my house, swarms 

 with multitudes of bream, many of which are from two to three 

 pounds in weight. About the middle of June, when the day is hot 

 and sultry, you may see shoals of bream, of all sizes, as far as the 

 eye can extend, just on the surface of the water, as though they had 

 risen there for coolness, verifying the old remark : 



" The sun's perpendicular heat 



Had reach'd to the depths of the sea : 

 The fishes, beginning to sweat, 



Cried, Damn it, how hot we shall be ! " 



Once, when things were in this state, it was amusing to see from 

 twenty to thirty herons floating to and fro through the air in the vain 

 expectation of getting a meal by a process by which nature never 

 intended they should procure it. They hovered over the shoal ot 

 bream for some hours, attempting, whilst on the wing, to strike the 

 fish. But all their efforts to seize their prey were utterly unsuccess- 

 ful. Their moving bodies warned the fish below ; and whenever the 

 birds descended to the surface of the water, the bream had retired 

 from the danger; so that not a single fish was captured by the 

 herons. Had the birds stood motionless on the bank, patience 



2 B 



