AVES— HERON. ^ 629 



v/ithin sight, he darts upon with an inevitable aim. In this manner he is 

 found to destroy more in a week than an otter in three months. "I have 

 seen a heron," says Willoughby, " that had been shot, which had seventeen 

 carps in his belly at once, which he will digest in six or seven hours. I have 

 seen a carp," continues he, " taken out of a heron's belly, nine inches and a 

 half long. Several gentlemen v/ho kept tame herons, to try what quantity 

 one of them would eat in a day, have put several smaller roach and dace 

 in a tub ; and they have found him eat fifty in a day, one day with another. 

 In this manner a single heron will destroy fifteen thousand carp in a 

 single half year." 



But though in seasons of fine weather the heron can always find a plenti- 

 ful supply, in cold or stormy seasons his prey is no longer within reach; the 

 fish that before came into shallow water now keep in the deep, as they find 

 it to be the warmest situation. Frogs and lizards, also, seldom venture 

 from their lurking places ; and the heron is obliged to support himself upon 

 his long habits of patience, and even to take up the weeds that grow upon 

 the water. At those times he contracts a consumptive disposition, which 

 succeeding plenty is not able to remove ; so that the meagre glutton spends 

 his time between want and riot, and feels alternately the extremes of famine 

 and excess. Hence, notwithstanding the ease with which he takes his 

 prey, and the amazing quantity he devours, the heron is always lean and 

 emaciated ; and though his crop be usually found full, yet his flesh is scarce 

 sufficient to cover the bones. 



Though this bird lives chiefly among pools and marshes, yet its nest is 

 built on the top of the highest trees, and sometimes on cliSs hanging over 

 the sea. They are never in flocks when they fish, committing their depre- 

 dations in solitude and silence; but in making their nests they love each 

 other's society ; and they are seen, like rooks, building in company with 

 flocks of their kind. Their nests are made of sticks, and lined with wool; 

 and the female lays four large eggs, of a pale color. The observable indo- 

 lence of their nature, however, is not less seen in their nestling thafi in 

 their habits of depredation. Nothing is more certain, and we havS seen it 

 a hundred times, than that they will not be at the trouble of building a nest 

 when they can get one made by the rook, or deserted by the owl, already 

 provided for them. This they usually enlarge and line within, driving off 

 the original possessors, should they happen to renew their fruitless claims. 



The heron is said to be a very long-lived bird ; by Mr Keysler's account, it 

 may exceed sixty years ; and by a recent instance of one that was taken in 

 Holland, by a hawk belonging to the Stadtholder, its longevity is again con- 

 firmed, the bird having a silver plate fastened to one leg, with an inscription, 

 importing that it had been struck by the elector of Cologne's hawks thirty- 

 five years before. 



53* 



