CHAP, vi.] DR. NEILLS HERON. 321 



1849, a bird of this species was exhibited, that had 

 been hatched and brought up by a hen, together with a 

 brood of chickens. It was in the same cage with its 

 foster-brothers and sisters, and suffered them to take 

 their share of the animal food that was given to it. The 

 Heron is most easily kept: not only refuse fish, but 

 rats, mice, dead birds, &c., afford a welcome repast. It 

 is as easily attainable : young birds from the nest are 

 to be had at a cheap rate in most localities of England. 

 It may be considered as a typical representative of a 

 considerable number of species (including the Egrets) ; 

 and the following original account of its conduct in 

 captivity, which I owe to the kindness of the venerable 

 Dr. Neill, will probably be acceptable to the reader : 

 "In the end of 1821, Mr. Wilson, janitor of the 

 College, presented to me a cock Heron, which had been 

 slightly winged on Coldingham Mere in the autumn, 

 and kept alive in one of the College cellars for several 

 weeks. It was evidently a young bird, just beginning 

 to assume the plumage of the male, and was readily 

 tamed under the judicious treatment of my servant, 

 Peggy Oliver (honourably mentioned by Audubon in 

 his "Ornithological Biography."*) During a severe 

 snow storm in February, 1822, the bird remained 

 at large in a shed behind a greenhouse, often sitting 

 not far from the stoke-hole of the furnace, and never 

 offering to go out of the shed. In the following 

 spring he gradually visited all parts of the garden, 

 and chose as his regular roosting place the stem of 

 a very large Bedford willow tree, which reclined on 

 my boundary Avail, and the spreading branches of 



* Vol. iii. pp. 312-13. 



