12 HERONS. 



roach, half digested, and eight inches and a 

 quarter in length. There were also pellets of hair 

 an inch and quarter long, apparently the hair of 

 the field mouse the scales of the common snake, 

 (natrix torquata) and the bones of the frog. On 

 the ground, under a heron's nest, we found a 

 pellet of hair about as big as an hen's egg, and 

 having exactly the microscopical characters and 

 general appearance of the water-rat (arvicola 

 amphibia). After searching repeatedly under the 

 different nests, we were never able to discover 

 any rejected particles of fish or even of fish bones. 

 The pellets of hair were frequent. 



It is evident from the above facts, that the food 

 of the heron is not confined to fish, and, therefore, 

 that the depredations, it is supposed to commit in 

 fish-ponds are not so extensive as has been as- 

 serted. It may be remarked that from the com- 

 paratively small size of a heron's nest, the young, 

 when about half grown, are constantly falling out 

 of it, and thus many perish. A visit to the heron- 

 shaw,* for so it was antiently called, in Windsor 

 Great Park, will amply repay the trouble of going 

 thither, if rambling in this most beautiful domain, 



* The Heron-shaw originally signified the wood or coppice 

 where the herons built ; thence it was transferred to the bird 

 itself, which was called Heronshaw ; and thus the proverb, " a 

 hawk from a handsaw," the meaning of which was, that in a very 

 distant flight, it was difficult to distinguish the hawk from the 

 heron. 



