316 HISTORY OF 



Of this tribe, Brisson has enumerated not less 

 than forty-seven sorts, all differing in their size, 

 figure, and plumage ; and with talents adapted to 

 their place of residence, or their peculiar pursuits. 

 But, how various soever the heron kind may be 

 in their colours or their bills, they all seem pos- 

 sessed of the same manners, and have but one 

 character, of cowardice and rapacity, indolence, 

 yet insatiable hunger. Other birds are found to 

 grow fat by an abundant supply of food ; but 

 these, though excessively destructive and vora- 

 cious, are ever found to have lean and carrion 

 bodies, as if not even plenty were sufficient for 

 their support. 



The common heron is remarkably light, in 

 proportion to its bulk, scarcely weighing three 

 pounds and a half, yet it expands a breadth of 

 wing which is five feet from tip to tip. Its bill is 

 very long, being five inches from the point to the 

 base ; its claws are long, sharp, and the middle- 

 most toothed like a saw. Yet, thus armed as it 

 appears for war, it is indolent and cowardly, and 

 even flies at the approach of a sparrow-hawk. It 

 was once the amusement of the great to pursue 

 this timorous creature with the falcon ; and heron 

 hawking was so favourite a diversion among our 

 ancestors, that laws were enacted for the preser- 

 vation of the species ; and the person who de- 

 stroyed their eggs was liable to a penalty of 

 twenty shillings for each offence. 



At present, however, the defects of the ill- 

 judged policy of our ancestors is felt by their pos- 

 terity ; for, as the amusement of hawking has 



