THE HERON 335 



THE HERON 

 [E. HARTERT] 



The heron is found on all suitable waters i.e. clear ponds, lakes, 

 large and small rivers, if not flowing too fast, and occasionally on the 

 seashore. During the breeding season it visits chiefly such waters as 

 are not too far from nesting-places. For the latter trees or bushes 

 of all sorts are chosen, though in some places the nests are built on 

 cliffs, and in treeless steppes even among reeds and on the flat 

 ground. 



The food is taken entirely from the water or from the ground. 

 An extraordinary exception to this rule is given in the Field of 7th 

 December 1912, where it is stated that a heron, though with great 

 difficulty and after many unsuccessful attempts, was observed to 

 capture in flight a bat which had been disturbed from its roosting- 

 place. The food consists chiefly of fishes of all kinds, unless too wide 

 or too large to swallow, and small ones of 10 to 20 centimetres are 

 nearly always chosen. Cases are, however, known in which birds have 

 attempted to swallow larger fish, with the result that the heron was 

 choked to death ; such cases are, of course, very rare. In one case 

 a heron was found choked to death by a large rat, and, in another 

 noted by Mr. W. Farren, by a roach weighing three-quarters of a 

 pound. The fish are swallowed alive, head first, and in this manner 

 even sticklebacks go down without difficulty. Eels seem to be 

 favourites, as they are, indeed, with many fish-eating birds. Besides 

 fish, reptiles, and tadpoles, small mammals (voles, mice, rats, shrews, 

 moles), large insects (such as beetles and Notonecta glauca), and young 

 birds, principally ducklings, are also taken, but fish are always the 

 principal and favoured food. There is, according to several authors, 

 some doubt whether mussels are eaten by herons or not ; but J. A. 

 Naumann (senior) has actually found them in the crop, and I have, 



