60 GREAT HERON. 



appearing like a tail, and probably serving the same rudder-like 

 office. When he leaves the sea coast, and traces on wing the 

 courses of the creeks or rivers upwards, he is said to prognos- 

 ticate rain; when downwards, dry weather. He is most jealous- 

 ly vigilant and watchful of man, so that those who wish to 

 succeed in shooting the Heron, must approach him entirely 

 unseen, and by stratagem. The same inducements, however, 

 for his destruction do not prevail here as in Europe. Our sea 

 shores and rivers are free to all for the amusement of fishing. 

 Luxury has not yet constructed her thousands of fish ponds, and 

 surrounded them with steel traps, spring guns, and Heron 

 snares. * In our vast fens, meadows and sea marshes, this stately 

 bird roams at pleasure, feasting on the never-failing magazines 

 of frogs, fish, seeds and insects with which they abound, and 

 of which he probably considers himself the sole lord and proprie- 

 tor. I have several times seen the Bald Eagle attack and tease 

 the Great Heron; but whether for sport, or to make him dis- 

 gorge his fish, I am uncertain. 



The common Heron of Europe (Jlrdea major) very much 

 resembles the present, which might, as usual, have probably 

 been ranked as the original stock, of which the present was a 



* " The Heron," says an English writer, " is a very great devourer of fish, 

 and does more mischief in a pond than an otter. People who have kept Herons 

 have had the curiosity to number the fish they feed them with, into a tub of wa- 

 ter, and counting theto again afterwards, it has been found that they will eat up 

 fifty moderate dace and roaches in a day. It has been found (hat in carp ponds 

 visited by this bird, one Heron will eat up a thousand store carp in a year; and 

 will hunt them so close as to let very few escape. The readiest method of de- 

 stroying this mischievous bird is by fishing for him in the manner of pike, with 

 a baited hook. When the haunt of the Heron is found out, three or four small 

 roach, or dace, are to be procured, and each of them is to be baited on a wire, 

 with a strong hook at the end, entering the wire just at the gills, and letting it 

 run just under the skin to the tail; the fish will live in this manner for five or six 

 days, which is a very essential thing: for if it be dead, the Heron will not touch 

 it. A strong line is then to be prepared of silk and wire twisted together, and is 

 to be about two yards long; tie this to the wire that holds the hook, and to the 

 other end of it there is to be tied a stone of about a pound weight; let three or 

 four of these baits be sunk in different shallow parts of the pond, and in a night 

 or two's time the Heroo will not fail to be taken with one or other of them." 



