THE COMMON HERON 121 



some places known to myself protection has been 

 given him, even where trout-streams run through 

 the meadows, close to the woods that he frequents. 

 If people think it is a fish he gets every time he 

 makes a stroke, they will be deceived. I have 

 known trout-streams utterly ruined as fishing 

 streams, but not by the Herons. It was caused by 

 the latest scientific improvements in so-called fish 

 culture. We find him now when we look for him, 

 in the same places that ancient members of his 

 family frequented, when Falcons alone were used for 

 his capture. These are the meres and lakes, reed- 

 fringed, and the wooded hills that rise above them ; 

 also the ruins of religious houses that the falconers 

 of past days frequently visited from the manors 

 below, with Herons, Bitterns, and Ducks for the 

 good sisters' tables when Lent was over. Fish 

 they had in abundance from the meres, lakes, 

 and streams round about them, and from the 

 rivers close by. There is abundance there now, 

 although the Herons do throw the shadow of their 

 broad wings on the waters as they fly over. 



Swans, ducks, and eels will do more mischief in 

 spawning time by gorging on the spawn up to their 

 very gullets than all the Herons in England would 

 do in fair fishing. The bird can only wade so far ; 

 small fish frequent shallow water, and bushels of 

 some sorts could come out of some waters and the 

 streams would be all the better for it. Any amount 

 of fish is poached at times, but the Herons are not 

 the poachers. 



