COMMON HERON. 141 



its extensive mud flats, either patiently waiting their 

 prey, knee deep in the narrow creeks, or in the act of 

 killing a freshly caught eel, by knocking it repeatedly 

 on the ground. Sometimes, also, they may be seen 

 grouped together in every conceivable attitude waiting 

 for the fall of the tide, reminding one of Mrs. Blackburn's 

 clever sketch of herons on the shores of Locheil. Next 

 to Breydon muds, Blakeney and Salthouse are perhaps 

 their most favourite resorts by the sea, as I have never 

 visited either place without seeing one or more even 

 in July and August, and at Salthouse Mr. Dowell once 

 saw a flock of fourteen. 



In such localities, at almost all seasons, they frequent 

 the salt marshes, backwaters, and sandy flats, or, perched 

 on the seaward side of a mussel-scalp or projecting 

 spit of shingle, reluctantly leave their post, only when 

 the sea washes the under parts of their plumage,* 

 and this more particularly in winter if frozen out from 

 their inland haunts, when, unfortunately, during severe 

 weather a considerable number are killed ; and though 

 no longer esteemed as an article of food,f find their way 



* In the "Zoologist" for 1866 (p. 95) Mr. Blake-Knox states 

 that from the New Bridge at Wexford, he observed a singular 

 habit in the heron. " Some were lying in the water, the head and 

 neck only emerging ; there was about a foot of water on the Ooze." 



f In former times the heron ranked no less high as a delicacy 

 for the table than as an object of sport, and whilst a heron tuft was 

 a badge of honour, no royal banquet was complete without a bird 

 or two occupying the chief place at the board. According to 

 Folkard, in Edward I. reign, the price of a heron was higher than 

 that of any other wild fowl, from sixteen to eighteen pence, the 

 latter for the young birds. In the Lord North "Accounts," at the 

 Kirtlinge festivities during Queen Elizabeth's visit, "xxviij 

 hearnshewes" were supplied at " iiij 1 *- xiij 8 - iiij d - " ; and in the 

 Northumberland " Household Book " it is ordered that " Hearon- 

 sewys be bought for my Lordes own Mees, so they be at xij d - a 



