BIRDS. 327 



seven sorts, all differing in their size, figure, and plumage ; and 

 with talents adapted to their place of residence, or their peculiai 

 pursuits. But, how various soever the heron kind may be in 

 their colours or their bills, they all seem possessed of the same 

 manners, and have but one character of cowardice, rapacity, and 

 indolence, yet insatiable hunger. Other birds are found to grow 

 fat by an abundant supply of food ; but these, though excessively 

 destructive and voracious, are ever found to have lean and 

 carrion bodies, as if not even plenty were sufficient for their 

 support. 



The common heron is remarkably light, in proportion to its 

 bulk, scarcely weighing three pounds arrd a half, yet it expands 

 a breadth of wing which is five feet from tip to tip. Its bill is 

 very long, being five inches from the point to the base ; its claws 

 are long, sharp, and the middlemost toothed like a saw. Yet, 

 thus armed as it appears for war, it is indolent and coward- 

 ly, and even flics at the approach of a sparrow-hawk. It was 

 once the amusement of the great to pursue this timorous crea- 

 ture with the falcon : and heron.havvking was so favourite a di- 

 version among our ancestors, that laws were enacted for the 

 preser\'ation of the species ; and the person who destroyed their 

 eggs was liable to a penalty of twenty shillings for each offence. 



At present, however, the defects of the ill-judged policy ot 

 our ancestors, is felt by their posterity ; for, as the amusement 

 of hawking has given place to the more useful method of stock- 

 ing fish-ponds, the heron is now become a most formidable ene- 

 my. Of all other birds, this commits the greatest devastation 

 in fresh waters ; and there is scarce a fish, though never so large, 

 that he will not strike at and wound, though unable to cany it 

 away. But the smaller fry are his chief subsistence ; these, 

 pursued by their larger fellows of the deep, are obliged to take 

 refuge in shallow waters, where they find the heron a still more 

 formidable enemy. His method is to wade as far as he can go 

 into the water, and there patiently wait the approach of his prey, 

 wliich, when it comes within sight, he darts upon with inevita- 

 ble aim. In this manner he is found to destroy more in a week 

 tlian an otter in three months. " I have seen a heron," says 

 Willoughby, " that had been shot, that had seventeen carps in 

 his belly at once, which he will digest in six or seven hours, and 

 then to fisliing again. I have seen a carp," continues lie, " taken 



2 i; y 



