148 MOUNTAIN AND MOORLAND 



is to be found in spring at the shallower end. It may 

 be for Frogs and Trout, or possibly for Eels, that the 

 Heron (Ardea cinered) comes and waits, standing 

 stock-still in the water in dignified patience or walking 

 very gently with stealthy steps. But we never saw 

 one strike at the tarn, and we know that their appetite 

 has a very wide range; it may have been only Water 

 Beetles or Tadpoles that were got. 



When a Heron condescends to take to flight on 

 man's approach, it seems to be leisurely, the flapping 

 of its big rounded wings is so slow. But we timed 

 the flight over and over again, and found that the 

 bird covered a mile in a minute. During the high, 

 straight flight the neck is bent like an S, and the 

 head rests between the shoulders. 



The Heron occasionally nests on the bare hillside, 

 or on crags, or among reeds ; but the favourite site in 

 Britain is on high trees, and there a heronry may be 

 founded. The nest is a large platform of sticks with 

 a lining of twigs and grass; there are three or four 

 large bluish-green eggs. It is through the summer 

 that the heronry is peopled and it is sometimes noisy; 

 in winter it is hardly more than a rendezvous, for the 

 Heron becomes more or less solitary. The parents 

 feed the young ones on fish. 



The Heron is one of our larger British birds, attain- 

 ing a length of three feet, and everyone must admire 

 its statuesque appearance. We like Mr. Beebe's 

 description: "Herons are the ' still-fishers ' of the 

 bird world, and stand in the shallows, silent and 

 motionless as the reeds around them, with their lance- 

 like beaks in rest and their necks at a hair-trigger 

 poise." They say that when a Heron is cornered it 



