106 THE HERON. 



not appear to be in the least exhausted ; but a gos- 

 hawk came in sight, and at her appearance the heron 

 escaped, screaming, to the upper regions of the sky. 



That is not, however, its usual mode of fishing. 

 Wading is the general method, and in it the hooked 

 and serrated toes are often used in aid of the bill. 

 Small streams and ponds are its most favourite places, 

 and the success, especially in the latter, is often very 

 great. Nor is the actual catching the only injury that 

 the heron does to fish-ponds, for it lacerates a great 

 many that it does not secure, and often in so severe a 

 manner that they will hardly recover, though fish suffer 

 far less, either in pain or injury, from wounds, than 

 land animals. The heron does not much frequent the 

 larger and deeper lakes, and seldom (perhaps never) 

 fishes in water deeper than the length of its neck and 

 legs. Its time of fishing is the dusk of the morning 

 and evening, cloudy days, and moon-light nights. We 

 remember seeing only one instance of a heron fishing 

 when the sun was bright. That was on a rivulet, in 

 the hills of Perthshire, the banks of which, at some 

 places, nearly closed over the water ; and there the 

 heron appeared, like a skilful angler, to take the side 

 opposite to the sun. 



The most apparently trivial habits of organized 

 bodies are just as demonstrative of infinite wisdom, as 

 those that attract the vulgar by their novelty, or by 

 some real or fancied resemblance to the marvellous 

 among mankind : the times at which the heron resorts 

 to the water to fish, are those at which the fish come to 

 the shores and shallows to feed upon insects, and when, 

 as they are themselves splashing and dimpling the water, 



