THE HERON. 197 



The laws affecting decoys* apply with equal force, in some re- 

 spects, to a heronry j and a similar distinction would arise between 

 an old established and a modern one. Serjeant Woolrych remarks, f 

 " Yet these heronries, if excessive, may be indicted at common law 

 as a nuisance, by virtue of the maxim, Sic utere tuo ut alienum won 

 lasdas." 



At the present day, however, heronries are not so numerous as 

 formerly ; and the few of these interesting resorts which are yet re- 

 maining in this country are objects far too harmless and attractive, 

 and too much venerated to become a nuisance, or the subject of an 

 indictment at common law. 



There is something peculiarly majestic and interesting in the heron ; 

 and it is extremely amusing to watch its lonely habits, as it stands 

 sometimes, an hour at a time, in apparently motionless position at the 

 brink of the water, whilst the tide continually washes its silvery feet ; 

 and unsuspecting little fish and eels swim boldly beneath the shadow 

 of its graceful form, when they are instantly detected by the keen 

 eyes of the bird, which strikes with piercing and unerring dart at the 

 intruders, rarely, if ever, failing to secure the slippery prize. 



It is the habit of the heron to place itself at the extreme point of 

 some promontory washed by every tide, and there to stand, sometimes 

 until the water fairly reaches its feathers, when it either retreats a few 

 steps, or flies, or marches to some other spot. But the water must 

 be clear, or it is no place for the heron. And this is one of the cir- 

 cumstances which has induced some persons to imagine there are but 

 few herons in this country at the present day. Wherever the water 

 has become constantly cloudy, so that the heron is unable to see its 

 prey through the liquid element, it leaves that locality, and seeks one 

 better adapted to the manner of obtaining its food. Neither does the 

 heron like rocky coasts or hard soil, because of the risk it incurs of 

 injury or pain to its bill on striking it against hard substances, at eels 

 and other fish which may be near the bottom : it rather prefers 

 muddy flats and the oozy beds of tidal rivers, in some of which, 

 on the eastern coast, and more especially the rivers Stour, Orwell, 

 and Deben, these birds are, to this day, abundantly numerous. 



Herons forsake their haunts if fired at by night from beneath trees 

 on which they build or roost. They are open to any fair challenge 



* Vide ante, p. 76. 



t Woolrych's " Game Laws," p. 15. 



