AVES—HERON. 629 
within 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. “TI 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 who kept tame herons, to try wnat quantity 
one of them would eat ina day, have put several smaller roach and dace 
in a tub; and they have found him eat fifty in a duy, 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. h 
Though this bird lives chiefly among pools and marshes, yet its nest is 
built on the top of the highes* trees, and sometimes on cliffs 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 than in 
their habits of depredation. Nothing is more certain, and we have 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 ow], 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 heen struck by the elector of Cologne’s hawks thirty- 
five years before. 
53* 
