LX. CAPTURE OF YOUNG HERONS. 



HERONS build on a little rocky island in a fresh water hill 

 loch about four miles from here, on little stunted birch trees, not 

 far out of reach. A boy fetched down two of them for me ; 

 they were fledged, but not yet able to fly. They didn't attempt 

 to peck at him, but made great resistance to leaving their birth- 

 place, holding on to the branches with beak and claws as if they 

 had been parrots. We took them home, but did not clip their 

 wings or confine them in any way ; only deposited them on the 

 branch of a laburnum tree, where they looked remarkably well 

 among the yellow blossoms. They soon got very tame. We fed 

 them on fish when we had it, and at other times on raw meat. 

 They would eat bread or porridge, or almost anything, often 

 picking up bits of boiled potatoes with the hens or ducks. They 

 sat for many hours quietly about the back door during the day, 

 or flew down to the seashore for a while ; and in the evening, 

 when the days shortened, they would stalk into the kitchen to 

 look at the bright fire and see the lamp lit. They always spent 

 the night out of doors, only taking the sheltered side of an out- 

 house in a stormy winter night. The next spring they began to 

 carry sticks about among the rocks and heather as if they 

 thought of building a nest, but nothing came of it. 



In the course of time one of them died. There was no 

 post-mortem, but it was reported to be very fat. The following 

 spring the remaining one disappeared for some months. It 

 probably went to the island it came from, and may have hatched 

 a brood for aught we know. It returned late in summer, and 

 was found, as usual, as still as a stuffed bird, at the back door, 

 near the larder, waiting for its dole and as tame as ever. The 



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