THE HERON. 



\vingof not less than five feet: and although other 

 animals mostly grow fat bv a plentiful supply of food, 

 this continues constantly fean, notwithstanding its in- 

 satiate, voracity. Its bill is not less than five inches 

 long from the base to the point; and its claws are 

 long, sharp, and formidable : but although it appears 

 thus completely armed not only for defensive, but 

 offensive war, it flies at the approach of the sparrow 

 hawk. Of all birds, however, this commits the 

 greatest depredations in fresh water; and there i* 

 scarcely a fish, however large soever it may be, that 

 it will not strike at and wound, although it be unable 

 to carry it away ; but it subsists chiefly on the smaller 

 fry. The heron wades into the water as far as it can, 

 and then carefully watches for its victims, and will, it 

 is said, destroy more fish in a week than an otter will 

 do in three months. 



? " I have seen," says Willoughby, tf an heron shot 

 that had seventeen carps in his belly, all which he is 

 able, to digest in six or seven hours. I have also 

 seen/' continues the same author, "' a carp of nine 

 inches and a half long, taken out of the belly of a he- 

 ron." Several gentlemen who kept tame -herons to 

 try what quantity one of them could cat in a day, 

 have put small roach and dace into a tub, and they 

 have found one heron eat fifty in a day, one day with 

 another. In this manner a single heron will destroy 

 fifteen thousand carp in a single half year. 



After this relation, we are not to wonder that the 

 heron is considered as so terrible a depredator in fish- 

 ponds. It is now generally destroyed as a nuisance, 

 although it was once killed for its flesh, which was 

 formerly considered as a delicacy, and is indeed very 

 good food, although not at present held in any great 

 estimation. 



If we might be permitted to judge of the inscruta- 

 ble designs of the Creator in forming this insatiable 

 bird, existence seems to be given it fur the purpose of 

 counterbalancing by its voracity the supei abundant 

 fecundity of some species of fishes, and preventing 

 >hir excessive multiplication. 

 r 



