THE CRANE KIND. 173 



within, driving off the original possessors, should they happen to re- 

 new their fruitless claims. 



The French seem to have availed themselves of the indolence of 

 this bird in making its nest, and they actually provide a place with 

 materials fitted for their nestling, which they call heronries. The 

 heron, which with us is totally unfit for the table, is more sought for 

 in France, where the flesh of the young ones is in particular estima- 

 tion. To obtain this, the natives raise up high sheds along some 

 fishy stream, and furnishing them with materials for the herons to 

 nestle with, these birds build and breed there in great abundance. 

 As soon as the young ones are supposed to be fit, the owner of the 

 heronry comes, as we do into a pigeon-house, and carries off such as 

 are proper for eating, and these are sold for a very good price to the 

 neighbouring gentry. " These are a delicacy which," as my author 

 says, " the French are very fond of, but which strangers have not yet 

 been taught to relish as they ought." Nevertheless it was formerly 

 much esteemed as food in England, and made a favourite dish at 

 great tables. It was then said that the flesh of a heron was a dish for 

 a king ; at present nothing about the house will touch it but a cat. 



With us, therefore, as the heron, both old and young, is thought 

 detestable eating, we seldom trouble these animals in their heights, 

 which are for the most part sufficiently inaccessible. Their nests are 

 often found in great numbers in the middle of large forests, and in 

 some groves nearer home, where the owners have a predilection for 

 the bird, and do not choose to drive it from its accustomed habita- 

 tions. It is certain that by their cries, their expansive wings, their 

 bulk and wavy motion, they add no small solemnity to the forest, and 

 give a pleasing variety to a finished improvement. 



When the young are excluded, as they are numerous, voracious, 

 and importunate, the old ones are for ever upon the wing to provide 

 them with abundance. The quantity of fish they take upon this oc- 

 casion is amazing, and their size is not less to be wondered at. 1 

 remember a heron's nest that was built near a school-house ; the 

 boys, with their usual appetite for mischief, climbed up, took down 

 the young ones, sewed up their vents, and laid them in the nest as 

 before. The pain the poor little animals felt from the operation in- 

 creased their cries, and this but served to increase the diligence of 

 the old ones in enlarging their supply. Thus they heaped the nest 

 with various sorts of fish, and the best of their kind, and as tneir 

 young screamed they flew off for more. The boys gathered up the 

 fish, which the young ones were incapable of eating, till the old ones 

 at last quitted their nest, and gave up their brood, whose appetites 

 they found it impossible to satisfy. 



The heron is said to be a very long-lived bird ; by Mr. Keysler's 

 account, it may exceed sixty years ; and by a recent instance of one 

 that was taken in Holland, by a hawk belonging to the Stadtholder 

 its longevity, is again confirmed, the bird having a silver plate fasten 

 ed to one leg, with an inscription, importing that it had been strucif 

 by the elector of Cologne's hawks thirty-five years before 



