TASTE OF PISCIVOROUS BIRDS. 169 



into the sea with a loud rushing sound, and with the 

 certainty of a rifle. In a few moments he emerges, 

 bearing in his claws his struggling prey, which he 

 always carries head-foremost, and, having risen a 

 few feet above the surface, shakes himself as a water 

 spaniel would do, and directs his heavy and laborious 

 course direct for the land. If the wind blows hard, 

 and his nest be in a quarter from whence he comes, 

 it is amusing to observe with what judgment he beats 

 up to windward ; not in a direct line, but making 

 several successive tacks to gain his purpose*." 



It would appear from these accounts that the 

 circumstance mentioned by the ancient naturalists of 

 the osprey being sometimes dragged under water and 

 drowned is not improbable. The polypus (Medusa 

 or Sepia) is the animal to which, though " unwar- 

 like and timid," as Scaligerf calls it, this is ascribed. 

 yElian says the polypus holds fast by a rock while it 

 drags the eagle under water J. 



The heron pursues a very different mode of fishing, 

 and we have often admired the patience with which 

 it will stand knee-deep on the edge of a lake, for 

 hours together, as irnmoveable as if it were inanimate, 

 watching for the chance appearance of a fish or a 

 frog within reach of its formidable bill. Like the 

 spider ambushed in its web, or the ant-lion (Myrme- 

 leoii) in its pitfall, the heron might be judged by a 

 bystander to be indolent and sluggish ; but no sooner 

 does a fish come into view, than its every fibre seems 

 buoyant with animation, and it strikes its victim with 

 electric celerity, rarely missing its aim. We have 

 most commonly seen the heron fishing very early in 

 the morning, but once we observed one on a bright 

 moonlight summer night standing, as we have de- 

 scribed, on the edge of Loch Brown in Ayrshire. As 



*Amer. Ornith. v. 13. 



| Exercitat. 231. J Hist. Animal, vii. 11. 



R3 



