394 Ardeidce. 



the accustomed manner of other birds, than it is for the sparrow, 

 the finch, or the domestic fowl. Their habits are generally soli- 

 tary, except at the period of breeding, when they usually con- 

 gregate in large companies. 



143. COMMON HERON (Ardea cinerea). 



This is the only species of the whole family which we can 

 really designate an inhabitant of Wiltshire ; those others which I 

 have to mention being now mere stragglers of very rare oc- 

 currence. But the Common Heron is known to everybody, and 

 we have all seen this majestic bird on the wing to and from 

 its roosting-places, or surprised it standing motionless in shallow 

 water watching for its prey. It bears a bad character with those 

 who preserve fish, but Mr. Waterton has pointed out that this is 

 quite undeserved, as the benefits it confers by destroying rats, 

 reptiles and insects more than compensate for the few fish which 

 it will devour when it can find them in the shallows. At 

 one time it was in high favour, and indeed protected by law 

 as the most noble game at which hawks could be flown ; royal 

 game it was then, and a severe penal statute was enacted for its 

 preservation'; the taking of its egg subjecting the offender to 

 no less a penalty than twenty shillings, which was an enormous 

 fine in those days. Even now it is designated in Spain and 

 Portugal as Gar$a real. From a list of the game served at 

 a wedding-dinner in 1530 we learn that the price of a heron 

 was at that time 12d., of a swan 6s., of a crane 3s. 4d., of a 

 bittern 14d. ; and these prices will appear much higher when we 

 read that at the same feast an ox cost 30s., a calf 3s., a sheep 

 2s. 4d., and a lamb Is. 6d., while chicken were Is. 6d. per dozen.* 

 In those days its flesh was greatly esteemed as a most dainty 

 morsel ; but those palmy days when it stood high in the estima- 

 tion of English gentlemen are gone by, and now it is despised 

 alike by the epicure and the sportsman, and persecuted by the 

 gamekeeper and the fisherman. At that happy period it was 

 much more numerous than at present ; but even now one may 

 Cordeaux's ' Birds of the Humber District,' p. 102. 



