THE HERON 261 



of the cream-coloured plume, yellowish-green beak 

 and yellow iris. 



The heron is a wary bird, but there are times 

 when he is so intent on his fishing operations as 

 to render himself an easy mark for the gunner, 

 especially amongst the deeply-cut furrows which 

 so often intersect the water-meadows. Last 

 autumn, one of my servants, observing a heron 

 fishing in such a spot, picked up a stone and 

 killed it as it rose. I preserved and mounted it, 

 and a very good specimen it is of its kind, though, 

 perhaps, hardly as fully matured as it might have 

 been. 



It has been stated by some naturalists of repute 

 that herons are in the habit of holding a kind of 

 parliament, and I have seen an illustration of one 

 of these supposed ' assemblages,' in which a 

 number of these birds were disposed in a semi- 

 circle, with one patriarch standing in the centre 

 of the group, as if judging the community. 

 All such stereotyped gatherings are, of course, 

 purely ideal. I have no reason to doubt the truth 

 of the assertion that certain kinds of birds do 

 hold a kind of parliament. That rooks do so I 

 have from the lips of an eye-witness upon whose 

 veracity I place every reliance, though I myself 

 have never witnessed such a proceeding. Birds 

 are often most brutally cruel to each other, as may 

 constantly be witnessed amongst fowls or tame 

 pigeons, which, for no apparent reason, will select 

 some wretched individual and hunt it to death, at 



