64 The Zoologist — February, 1866. 



the fish disappeared ; then the neck was gradually retracted and all 

 voluntary effort to swallow ceased. The lower mandible was capable of 

 considerable dilatation at the base, so that a morsel of food four inches 

 in diameter could be swallowed without much difEculty. During the 

 whole process, and especially when it was much prolonged, saliva 

 flowed abundantly, but nevertheless it was always necessary for me to 

 dip the food in water before offering it. Fish were never swallowed 

 otherwise than head foremost. I never saw ihera tossed in the air and 

 caught again, in the manner described by some authors, but with the 

 bill pointed towards the ground they were shaken about, suffered to 

 fall for a short distance, and quickly grasped again, until, by frequent 

 repetition of the process, they were brought into the desired position. 

 The grasp of the bill was exceedingly powerful. Once, in my haste, 

 1 clumsily inserted a finger instead of a fish, and thus, as the bird 

 quickly drew back its head, the finely serrated edges of the upper half 

 of the bill inflicted two deep cuts as cleanly as if they had been made 

 with a knife. After the food had been swallowed, the tongue was often 

 rapidly protruded and slowly withdrawn. In stuffed specimens of the 

 heron, the wires which support the legs are usually so placed that the 

 so-called knees are widely apart ; in this individual, however, those 

 parts were so close together as sometimes to meet, thus causing a very 

 unpleasing "knock-kneed" appearance. Another mistake upon the 

 part of the bird-stuffer is to place the eyes quite flat in the head : on 

 looking from above upon the head of the living bird it will be seen that 

 they project considerably posteriorly, so as to look forwards. Almost 

 everyone who has seen a recently-killed heron, must have observed 

 upon the bill and legs a peculiar bluish powder resembling the 

 "bloom" upon a plum. Not long ago I read somewhere that this was 

 a luminous substance secreted for the purpose of attracting fish at 

 night. Delighted with the idea, I at first hung up dead herons in 

 dark cupboards, but, unfortunately for the above ingenious theory, the 

 cupboards remained as dark as before, and even when, thinking that 

 this was in consequence of the birds being dead, 1 visited my short- 

 lived captive under the trees one dark night, so far from beholding 

 "a faint glinnnering as of subdued moonbeams," so eloquently de- 

 scribed by (he author alluded to, I with difl5culty made out a shapeless 

 black lump. The powder is not found upon the bill and legs alone ; 

 the whole plumage is tilled with it, so that it comes off upon one's 

 clothes, and when the bird falls into calm water, a large quantity of 

 bluish dust immediately spreads around upon the surface. I often 



