554 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [August, 1907. 



and seem very injurious to tlie life of the tree. The tops of 

 the plane trees in which there are heronries ai-e usually dead. 

 There was one large herony in the Shalimar Garden (Kash- 

 mir), but it was deserted some years ago as the whole of the 

 tree-tops had died. Fresh fish are daily dropped by herons 

 from their nests, but once dropped are never retrieved. 



A small parasite, something like a grain of linseed, is found 

 in the mouth of common herons ^ in the Punjab, both in the wild 

 state and in captivity. This parasite is abundant in spring. It is 

 apparently transmitted by fish, for I found that it nearly 

 disappeared in captive herons when they were fed chiefly on frogs 

 and meat. In captivity herons will eat rats, young pigeons, 

 quails,^ and meat, besides, of course, frogs and fish. 



That a hawked heron casts up fish is a fact well known to 

 falconers. That fish so cast up are always fresh and not 

 partially digested, indicates that they are cast up from the 

 crop, and not from the stomach. It is supposed that the heron 

 empties its * creel * with the object of lightening itself, prepara- 

 tory to * ringing up ' before the hawk. The vomiting is, 

 however, I think, involuntary, and the result of fear ; for a 

 newly-caught heron will always, for the first two days of its 

 captivity, vomit up any fish that it has just swallowed, if a 

 human visitor approaches its enclosure. lib will do this with- 

 out leaving its perch, or the corner in which it is crouching. 

 By the third day it usually becomes accustomed to the human 

 presence and ceases to vomit. Further, a hawked heron that has 

 no intention of * ringing up,' one that will not leave the shelter 

 of a deep nullah let the field gallop as hard as it may, will still 

 vomit up freshly-caught fish, even when the delay this occasions 

 places it at a disadvanta^^e and endangers its life. 



A hawked heron will sometimes splash into deep water 

 like a duck, or plunge into the dense foliage of a baniyan tree 

 and refuse to quit. I have heard of one diving into a flock of 

 sheep. The eyes of a newly-taken heron should be at once 

 * seeled.* If the skin of the neck has been torn by the hawk, 

 it should be sewn up, if possible on the spot, and some oint- 

 ment applied. (However bad the injuries, if this is done, the 

 herons will probably recover: if, however, these precautions are 

 neglected, they frequently die of their injuries.) The heron 

 should then be * mailed,' or put in a sock, the legs being 

 stretched out behind as in flying. If the heron is carried with 

 its legs doubled up, it will catch an incurable ' cramp. ' If 

 tapes be sewn on to the sock, herons can be suspended on the 



^ I do not recollect having found this parasite in the purple-heron or 

 in the night-heron. If it attacks the two last, it does so rarely. 



2 1 Qjjce gave a tame white stork, a live quail with shortened wings. 

 The stork chaaed it in the long grfiBS, caught it, 'chopped* it, and tried to 

 swallow it. Evidently finding the feathers too dry, it stalked over to its 

 fiiable-bucket at the other side of the compound, soused it in water, 

 chopping' all the while, and then swallowed it whole with ease. The 

 same bird used to get into the pigeon-houae and eat half -fledged squabs. 



