544 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



So far, indeed, is the Heron from injuring the interests of the 

 angler, that it is a positive benefactor. Mr. Waterton, who was 

 obliged by the continual burrowing of water-rats to drain and fill 

 up a series of large ponds, makes the following remarks on the 

 bird : " Had I known then as much as I do now of the valuable 

 services of the Heron, and had there been a good heronry near 

 the place, I should not have made the change. The draining of 

 the ponds did not seem to lessen the number of rats in the brook ; 

 but soon after the Herons had settled here to breed, the rats be- 

 came exceedingly scarce, an*d now I rarely see one in the place 

 where formerly I could observe numbers sitting on the stones at 

 the mouth of their holes as soon as the sun had gone below the 

 horizon." 



When the Heron flies to its nest from any great distance, it gen- 

 erally ascends to a considerable height, and is in the habit of ut- 

 tering a curious and very harsh cry, which at once tells the nat- 

 uralist that a Heron is on the wing. When a Heron passes im- 

 mediately over the observer the effect is very remarkable, the 

 long, stretched-out legs and neck and slender body looking like a 

 large knitting-needle supported on enormous wings. 



To see the Heron alight on its nest or on a branch is rather a 

 curious sight. The bird descends, drops its long legs, places its 

 feet on the branch, and then flaps its huge wings as if to get its 

 balance before it settles down. The rustics have an idea that a 

 Heron is obliged to allow its legs to dangle on either side of the 

 nest while it sits on its eggs, and some will aver that a hole is 

 made in the nest through which the legs can be thrust. It is 

 scarcely necessary to say that the construction of a bird's legs pre- 

 vents it from assuming such an attitude, and that the long Heron 

 can sit as easily upon its pale green eggs as the short-limbed do- 

 mestic fowl on her white eggs. 



Some of our common British birds build nests that can vie, in 

 point of beauty and delicacy, with any nest made by birds of oth- 

 er lands. It is scarcely possible to conceive a nest which is more 

 worthy of admiration than that of the Long-tailed Titmouse, 

 which has already been described ; and in their own way, the 

 houses erected by the Chaffinch and Goldfinch are quite as beau- 

 tiful. As there are some points of similarity in the two nests, 

 they will be mentioned in connection with each other. 



First we will take the nest of the Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs). 



