THE HERON 337 



soon as a possible enemy approaches it is stretched out, and the bird 

 becomes a picture of alertness, though standing motionless. The 

 heron walks deliberately, with long strides. On taking wing it rises 

 somewhat laboriously, though quick enough, and once in the air pro- 

 gresses fairly fast, with long flaps of its wide and rounded wings. 

 During flight the neck is bent in the form of an S, and the head 

 rests between the shoulders, the legs stretched out behind, as is the 

 case with all water-birds. The heron flies high and straight. 



In Great Britain and Ireland the heron is a resident all the year 

 round, but in the colder portions of the Continent it is strictly 

 migratory. In England it returns to the nesting-places by the end of 

 January or in February, but in Northern Germany, for example, not 

 before March or even April. Most of the migrants seem to winter 

 in the Mediterranean countries and in South-east Europe. The 

 species nests mostly in colonies, often of many hundreds of pairs, 

 but single nests are not uncommonly found. 



In the breeding season herons may be seen flying about in huge 

 circles over the nest trees, one of a pair pursuing the other with wild 

 shrieks, the pursued falling down away from the other when nearly 

 reached, and both now and then tilting their bodies as if they would 

 overbalance themselves. 1 The usual note is a discordant shriek, some- 

 what like an unsuccessful trumpet-blast, but reminding one rather of a 

 goose's cry when heard from afar. Near the nest, seldom elsewhere, 

 one hears also a low " ka." 



The nest is a large, flat structure of sticks, with a shallow 

 depression lined with grass, fur, or other soft material, and, as it is 

 used for many years, often of great dimensions. Both parents take 

 part in incubation and in feeding the young. Moult takes place after 

 the breeding season, and there is only one moult each year. 



Very often heronries are also occupied by other birds, especially 

 the cormorants, nests of both species being found on the same trees. 

 Rooks also nest frequently in the heronries ; there is generally much 



1 Edmund Selous, Bird-life Glimpses, p. 81. 



