156 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL, 



sharp beak of their adversary. As to the heron, 

 with the exception of a slight laceration of the 

 dorsal plumage, he seemed to have suffered no 

 injury. He was therefore reserved as a trophy, 

 and doomed, poor fellow, to be turned out soon 

 afterwards for the amusement of a larger party of 

 spectators. 



By the way, there are two fables connected 

 with the habits of the heron, yet both of them 

 pass current with the greater part of the world as 

 established facts in its natural history. One is, 

 that he presents his beak to his enemy so as to 

 transfix him when the latter is about to ' stoop.' 

 Indeed the awkward and lumbering movements of 

 the heron at this critical moment show that 

 even if he were disposed to try the experiment, 

 he has no power to bring this formidable 

 weapon into play against his swift and vigorous 

 antagonist, whose mode of attack indeed, as well 

 as the rapidity of its execution, would render 

 such a result exceedingly improbable ; for the 

 swoop is made obliquely, not perpendicularly, and 

 the falcon strikes her quarry from behind. When 

 the falcons and the heron have reached the 

 ground, then matters assume a different aspect. 

 The moment he finds himself on terra firma he 

 shows a bold front, and struggles to be revenged 

 on his persecutors by well-directed and quickly 



