3 8 BRITISH BIRDS. 



female lays from four to six eggs, of a pale 

 greenish blue colour.* 



This bird is of a melancholy deportment, a silent 

 and patient creature ; in the most severe weather it 

 will stand motionless a long time in the water, 

 with its head laid back between its shoulders, its 

 bill overlapped by the long feathers of the neck, as 

 a defence from the cold, and fixed to a spot, in 

 appearance like the stump or root of a tree, waiting 

 for its prey, which consists of eels and other kinds 

 of fish, frogs, water-newts, c. ; it is also said to 

 devour field-mice. 



* A remarkable circumstance, with respect to these birds, oc- 

 curred not long ago, at Dallam Tower, in Westmoreland, the seat of 

 the late Daniel Wilson, Esq. 



" There were two groves adjoining to the Park : one of which, for 

 many years, had been resorted to by a number of Herons, which 

 there built and bred ; the other was one of the largest rookeries in 

 the country. The two tribes lived together for a long time without 

 any disputes. At length, the trees occupied by the Herons, consist- 

 ing of some very fine old oaks, were cut down in the spring of 1775. 

 and the young brood perished by the fall of the timber. The parent 

 birds immediatelv set about preparing new habitations, in order to 

 breed again; but, as the trees in the neighbourhood of their old 

 nests were only of a late growth, and not sufficiently high to secure 

 them from the depredation of boys, they determined to effect a 

 settlement in the rookery. The Rooks made an obstinate resistance; 

 but, after a very violent contest, in the course of which many of the 

 Rooks, and some of their antagonists, lost their lives, the Herons 

 at last succeeded in their attempt, built their nests, and brought out 

 their young. 



" The next season, the same contests took place, which terminated, 

 like the former, by the victory of the Herons. Since that time, 

 peace seems to have been agreed upon between them : the Rooks 

 have relinquished possession of that part of the grove which the 

 Herons occupy; the Herons confine themselves to those trees they 

 first seized upon, and the two species live together in as much har- 

 mony as they did before their quarrel/' Heysham. 



