A FEATHERED ANCHORITE. 221 



position, too, he will hear the song more distinctly. There 

 is an echo, and, you could almost swear, a shaking of the 

 ground ; not that, as Thomson pretends, 



" The bittern knows his time, with bill engulfed, 

 To shake the sounding marsh ; " 



but that when the bird is " booming and bleating " over- 

 head, it does seem as if the earth trembled : though this, 

 probably, is nothing more than "the general affection of 

 the sentimental system by the jarring upon the ear — an 

 affection which we more or less feel in the case of all 

 harsh and grating sounds, more especially when they are 

 new to us." 



Passing to the herons, the Common or Gray Heron, 

 with its large head and long bill, its curved thick neck, 

 its high and almost hunched back, its short tail, and its 

 long legs set so far back in the body that one wonders 

 how it can preserve its equilibrium, presents a sufficiently 

 striking if not very graceful appearance. 



It is a melancholy and lonely bird, living a veritable 

 hermit life in the silent fens and marshes, except during 

 the breeding season, when it seeks the company of its 

 congeners ; and they form one of those large communities 

 called " heronries," which in the old time were so carefully 

 protected for the sake of the amusement they afforded 

 king, knight, and noble, in the all-engrossing pursuit of 

 hawking. 



A graphic description of the habits of this feathered 

 anchorite is given by Cuvier. It everywhere seeks, as he 



