GREAT HERON. 29 



of the creeks or rivers upwards, he is saidjto prognosticate 

 rain ; when downwards, dry weather. He is most 

 jealously 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 proprietor. 

 I have several times seen the bald eagle attack and 

 tease the great heron; but whether for sport, or to 

 make him disgorge his fish, I am uncertain. 

 '2_The common heron of Europe (ardea major) very 

 much resembles the present, which might, as usual, 



* " The heron," says an English writer, " is a veiy 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 water, and counting them 

 again afterwards, it has been found that they will eat up fifty 

 moderate dace and roaches in a day. It has been found, that 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 destroyiug 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 heron will not fail to be taken with one or other of 

 them. " 



