184 



HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



Though this bird lives chiefly among pools 

 and marshes, yet its nest is built on the tops 

 of the highest trees, and sometimes on cliffs 

 hanging over the sea. They are never in 

 6ocks when they fish, committing their depre- 

 dations in solitude and silence ; but in mak- 

 ing their nests they love each other's society; 

 and they are seen, like rooks, building in 

 company with flocks of their kind. Their 

 nests are made of sticks, and lined with wool ; 

 and the female lays four large eggs of a pale 

 green colour. The observable indolence of 

 their nature, however, is not less seen in their 

 nestling than in their habits of depredation. 

 Nothing is more certain, and I have seen it 

 a hundred times, than that they will not be 

 at the trouble of building a nest, when they 

 can get one made by the rook, or deserted by 

 the owl, already provided for them. This 

 they usually enlarge and line within, driving 

 off the original possessors, should they happen 

 to renew their fruitless claims. 



The French seem to have availed them- 

 selves of the indolence of this bird in making 

 its nest ; and they actually provide a place 

 with materials fitted for their nestling, which 

 they call heronries. The heron, which with 

 us is totally unfit for the table, is more sought 

 for in France, where the flesh of the young 

 ones is in particular estimation. To obtain 

 this the natives raise up high sheds along 

 some fishy stream ; and furnishing them with 

 materials for the herons to nestle with, these 

 birds build and breed there in great abun- 

 dance. As soon as the young ones are sup- 

 posed to be fit, the owner of the heronry 

 comes, as we do into a pigeon-house, and car. 

 ries off such as are proper for eating ; and 

 these are sold for a very good price to the 

 neighbouring gentry. " These are a delicacy 

 which," as my author says, " the French are 

 very fond of, but which strangers have not yet 

 been taught to relish as they ought." Never- 

 theless, it was formerly much esteemed as 

 food in England, and made a favourite dish 

 at great tables. It was then said that the flesh 

 of a heron was a dish for a king ; at present 

 nothing about the house will touch it but a cat. 



With us, therefore, as the heron, both old 

 and young, is thought detestable eating, we 

 seldom trouble these animals in their heights, 

 which are for the most part sufficiently inac- 

 cessible. Their nests are often found in great 

 numbers in the middle of large forests, and in 

 some groves nearer home, where the owners 

 have a predilection for the bird, and do not 

 choose to drive it from its accustomed habita- 

 tions. It is certain that by their cries, their 

 expansive wings, their bulk, and wavy motion, 

 they add no small solemnity to the forest, and 

 give a pleasing variety to a finished improve- 

 ment. 



When the young are excluded, as they are 

 numerous, voracious, and importunate, the old 

 ones are for ever upon the wing to provide 

 them with abundance. The quantity of fish 

 they take upon this occasion is amazing, arid 

 their size is not less to be wondered at. I re- 

 member a heron's nest that was built near a 

 school-house ; the boys, with their usual ap- 

 petite for mischief, climbed up, took down the 

 young ones, sewed up their vents, and laid 

 them in the nest as before. The pain the 

 poor little animals felt from the operation in- 

 creased their cries ; and this but served to in. 

 crease the diligence of the old ones in enlar- 

 ging their supply. Thus they heaped the 

 nest with various sorts of fish, and the best of 

 their kind; and as their young screamed, they 

 flew off for more. The boys gathered up the 

 fish, which the young ones were incapable of 

 eating, till the old ones at last quitted their 

 nest ; and gave up their brood, whose appetites 

 they found it impossible to satisfy. 



The heron is said to be a very long-lived 

 bird ; by Mr Keysler's account, it may ex- 

 ceed sixty years : and by a recent instance of 

 one that was taken in Holland, by a hawk 

 belonging to the Stadtholder, its longevity is 

 again confirmed, the bird having a silver plate 

 fastened to one leg, with an inscription, im- 

 porting that it had been struck by the elector 

 ot Cologne's hawks thirty-five years before. 



CHAP. VI. 



OF THE BITTERN, OR MIRE-DRUM. 



THOSE who have walked in an evening by 

 the sedgy sides of unfrequented rivers, must 

 remember a variety of notes from different 

 water-fowl : the loud scream of the wild-goose, 

 the croaking of the mallard, the whining of 

 the lapwing, and the tremulous neighing of 

 the jack-snipe. But of all those sounds, there 

 is none so dismally hollow as the booming of 



