144 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



are, no doubt, similarly disposed of when opportunity 

 offers. In the summer of 1847 Mr. Rising, of Horsey, 

 disturbed a heron by the water's edge, which rose with 

 something in its beak, but having dropped its prey 

 before it had flown far, Mr. Rising secured it, and 

 found it no other than a young water rail, freshly killed 

 and bleeding about the head. Mr. Newcome also tells 

 me that during very severe weather he once saw a horon 

 pick up something from the ground, and fly off with it 

 for about a hundred yards, when it again alighted and 

 began tumbling about in a very strange manner. On 

 running up he was just in time to shoot a stoat that 

 the bird had swallowed alive, but which it was only too 

 happy to disgorge as quickly as possible. 



Whether any portion of our Norfolk herons proceed 

 further south in severe winters, or more northern 

 residents visit our shores, I have at present no certain 

 evidence, but Mr. Frere is informed by a very trusty 

 Yarmouth gunner that he has seen the heron when at 

 sea, thirty miles from land, and that he last year (1867) 

 shot one in November.*' At Yarmouth, as Captain 

 Longe informs me, it is not an unusual thing to see 

 herons flying direct out to sea, but at low water it is 

 probable that the shoals and sandbanks, unhappily so 

 prominent on our dangerous coast, and accessible enough 

 to such long legged birds, might attract them for a 

 change of fish diet ; at Cromer, also, I have more than 

 once watched a heron, through a good glass, coming in a 

 direction from Yarmouth, and passing along shore with 

 a slow steady flight, making for some point not nearer, 

 I should imagine, than Salthouse or Blakeney. 



The soaring flight of the heron, which Virgil, with 



* The instance above quoted (p. 139, note) seems to show that 

 the Dutch herons emigrate to Algeria for the winter 



