308 



THE HERON. 



are unable to digest the harder portions of their food, such as 

 bones, &c., which are thrown up in pellets ; but in the Heron's 

 stomach they are easily dissolved. The inhabitants of the 

 Faroe Islands have also such a respect for its fishing powers, 

 that they believe a Heron's foot, carried in the pocket, will 

 ensure success. 



But this opinion is not confined to the ignorant people of 

 the Faroe Islands : the idea was once, and very possibly still 

 may be, current in some parts of England, that the feet and 

 legs of a Heron had something in them very attractive to fish, 

 and particularly to eels, which enabled the bird, when standing 



in water, to bring his prey 

 about him, and thus take it 

 with greater facility. Accord- 

 ingly, Herons were in great 

 request with fishermen, on 

 account of their feet and legs, 

 which were supposed to con- 

 tain an oil which, if rubbed 

 over a worm, rendered it a 

 sure bait for eels. 



The Heron's appetite is in 

 proportion to its powers of 

 digestion. A Heron was once 

 seen to dart upon a large eel, 

 and, after killing it by re- 

 peatedly dashing it against the ground, gulp it all down. 

 We have known another to consume no less than five mode- 

 rate-sized eels at a single meal, which the glutton seemed 

 quite ready to repeat within a very short time after ; and one 

 was found dead not long ago on the banks of Pulganny, other- 

 wise called the Water of Badenoch, near Drumlanford House, 

 in Scotland, the stomach of which actually contained the 

 extraordinary number of thirty-nine fine trouts. 



Storks and Cranes are not, like the Heron, stationary, but, 

 even in the countries to which they are most attached, are 

 regular birds of passage ; but so punctual in their comings and 

 goings, that from the most remote times they have been consi- 



The Heron. 



