320 THE MAGPIE 



In the very same valley, at Bingham's Melcombe 

 in which lives the magpie I have described above, 

 and often not far from that " solitary," is another 

 illustration of my point, a solitary heron. It may be 

 objected that the heron is, by nature, except at the 

 breeding season, as solitary, as a magpie is, by nature, 

 sociable ; and so, in some little measure, it is. But 

 a heron is almost always within eye-shot or ear-shot 

 of his fellows. If in wild-fowl shooting, you disturb 

 a heron from the ditch in a water-meadow where he 

 has speared a water vole, an eel, or a troutling, 

 he rises generally with a loud cry of alarm, which 

 will be heard by his fellow who is fishing or dozing, 

 in a similar ditch, a quarter of a mile away. You 

 will hear an answering cry ; and, within a few 

 moments, you will see not one, but a pair or more 

 of herons, flapping slowly and majestically through 

 mid-air. But no one has ever seen this particular 

 heron with or near a mate. No other heron is to be 

 found, even as a casual visitor, within three or four 

 miles of him. He has, apparently, no kith no kin 

 I wish I could add that he has no enemies, but he 

 has escaped them hitherto. The brook, the Devilish 

 or Dewlish, which flows through the bottom of the 

 manor house garden and by which he generally 

 takes his stand, is a meagre one, very scantily 



