HERBERTIA-HERON. 



726 



eat off the head of the stem, and prevent it rising to 



seed. It is certainly the Hercules of British plants. 



HERBERTI A (Sweet), a bulbous genus of plants 

 from South America, named in honour of the Hon. and 

 hev. VV. Herbert, an assiduous botanist. It belongs 

 to Iridcce, and its species are cultivated with other 

 bulbs in a frame, or warm border, only requiring to 

 be defended from severe frost. 



HERB PARIS is the Paris quadrifolia of Linnaeus, 

 a curious British plant belonging to the natural order 

 Aspkodelccc, found in damp boggy places under trees. 



HERB ROBERT is the Geranium Robertianum 

 of Linnaeus, a common British plant found under 

 every hedge. 



HERIADES (Spinola), a genus of bees nearly 

 allied to Chelottoma (which see), but having the jaws 

 triangular, and the maxillary palpi only two-jointed. 

 They are of small size, and make their nests in old 

 posts and trees. There are two British species. 



HERITIERA (Hortus Kewensis), East Indian 

 trees, called the " looking-glass plant." They belong 

 to the natural order Byttneriacea;, and thrive in our 

 stoves, in loam and moor earth, and are propagated by 

 cuttings. 



HERMANNIA (Linnaeus), a genus of orna- 

 mental shrubs from the Cape of Good Hope. Class 

 and order Monadelphia Pcntandria, and natural order 

 Byttncriacece. They are easily managed greenhouse 

 plants, growing in any light soil, and readily struck 

 from cuttings. 



HERMINIUM (R. Brown), a common British 

 orchis, formerly called O-phrys monorchis by Linnaeus. 

 Found in damp meadows. 



HERNANDIA (Linnaeus), a genus of large East 

 Indian trees, belonging to LaurinetE. The H.sonora, 

 or Jack in a box, is so called from the noise made by 

 the wind whistling through its persistent involucels. 

 The juice of the leaves is found to be an advantageous 

 and effectual depilatory, as it destroys the hair where- 

 ever it is applied, and this without pain, 



HERNIA RIA (Linnaeus), or rupture wort, is a 

 genus of creeping and half-shrubby plants, natives of 

 Europe. The flowers are pentandrious, and belong 

 to the natural order Paronyc/iietz. They are highly 

 ornamental when planted on rock-work. 



HERON (Ardea). An interesting order of birds, 

 belonging to the cultirostral division of stilt birds or 

 waders, and usually considered as a family, including 

 the various divisions of herons properly so called, 

 and also the bitterns and the night herons. We have 

 already given some notice of the bitterns in the article 

 BITTERN, and we have mentioned the general rela- 

 tions of the family in the article ARDEA, so that we 

 shall here require to notice only the leading species. 



Herons are usually subdivided into three sections 

 herons properly so called, which have the legs very 

 long ; crab-eating herons, which have them much 

 shorter ; and egrets, which have the long legs and 

 neck, and slender body of the true herons, but which 

 have often very beautiful produced feathers on the 

 back, by the assistance of which they float very lightly 

 m the air. They are all more or less migrant, and 

 birds of high and powerful flight ; but those which 

 have the produced or supplemental feathers, which 

 are understood to be seasonal in most of the species, 

 are generally regarded as being more migratory in 

 their habits than those which have not. . Heron's, in 

 one or other of their species, are found in most 

 countries of the world, lu all places they frequent 



the banks of ponds, lakes, and rivers, and some of 

 them are occasionally met with on the shores of the 

 sea. They are stately in their march, and the vast 

 length of their legs, necks, and wings, makes them 

 appear much larger birds than they are in reality, 

 for their bodies are light ; and the sportsman who 

 sees a heron on the wing, and succeeds in bringing 

 it down by a shot, is apt to be astonished at the small 

 bird which has come to him, considering the largo 

 one that he observed'in the sky. 



As is the case with all wading birds, they project 

 the feet backwards while they are on the wing, and 

 they generally fly so high, especially on their long 

 journeys, that they are above almost every bird from 

 which they need to apprehend any danger. Tho 

 falcon, indeed, is the only bird of prey which can rise 

 to the full elevation of a heron ; and even from this 

 bird the heron escapes, by doubling the neck back 

 upon the shoulders, as this lessens the weight of the 

 fore part of the body, and consequently allows the 

 hind part to droop till the axis points upward 

 obliquely at the fore part ; and it will be readily 

 understood that, when birds fly, the line of course 

 which they attempt to make is the line of the general 

 axis of the body, though the real course made good 

 deviates from this in proportion to the weight of the 

 bird. Herons are very light birds in proportion to 

 their powers of flight, and they get the sky more 

 rapidly than birds of more powerful wing ; and there- 

 fore, even in the days of falconry, when the heron 

 was favourite sport with the jer or the peregrine, 

 there was no use of flying a falcon at a heron on 

 migratory flight. The times chosen were generally 

 those in which the birds were passing between their 

 feeding-places and those where the} 7 nestle, or, at 

 all events, repose. Herons do not, like storks and 

 cranes, rest themselves standing on the ground, at 

 least for any length of time. Their favourite places 

 are on the tops of trees, especially those which have 

 the upper branches lateral, and form a sort of wicker 

 platform. The birds stand upon these, and very 

 generally the whole body is seen above the tops of 

 the trees, in which situation the birds have a noble 

 appearance. 



The forward flight of herons is not rapid in pro- 

 portion to the length of their wings, neither do they 

 move these with so much velocity as many other 

 birds, although they are stroke-fliers rather than 

 gliders on the wing. Birds which glide usually take 

 their gliding-motion after having worked their wings 

 very rapidly for some time ; and thus, loosely-made 

 birds, with light bodies and very long wings, never 

 glide, though they continue to keep the sky with 

 very slow action. The peculiar style of the heron's 

 flight is best seen when the bird is nearly on a level 

 with the observer, and retreating, in which situation 

 it will be seen that the body is not the centre of 

 motion, but that there is a point in each wing upon 

 which the body and the tips of the wings appear to 

 swing alternately, the body sinking when the tips are 

 raised, and rising when they are depressed ; nor are 

 there any birds which show this motion in so great 

 perfection. Herons are very industrious and success- 

 ful fishers, but their food is pretty miscellaneous. 

 They eat the spawn of fishes, worms, shelled and 

 naked mollusca, crustaceous animals, frogs, and the 

 sm-aller mammalia which inhabit near the water. 

 They have but one principal moult in the year, and 

 the sexes do not differ greatly from each other in 



