THE HERON. 137 



are illustrative of habits of the species, which I have not seen 

 alluded to in any work. Even in the latest " History of British 

 Birds" — Mr. YarrelTs excellent work — it is remarked that, in 

 winter, seldom more than one heron is seen at the same time and 

 place ; the species is also characterized there as gregarious only 

 at the breeding season. 



Fishing and Food. 



Different statements have been made respecting the heron's 

 fishing time. I have somewhere read of its never fishing by night, 

 not even by the clearest moonlight; an idea which would be 

 scouted by the old women of the north of Ireland, whose favourite 

 prescription for " rheumatic pains" is " the fat of a heron killed 

 at the full of the moon.""* That the bird is then in the best 

 condition, is not imaginary; it visits Belfast bay in as great 

 numbers to feed by moonlight as by day, at all seasons of the 

 year. It is not known to come in dark nights. Those who kill 

 the birds for eating (which some very few poor shooters do) con- 

 sider them only in sufficiently good condition after a duration of 

 moonlight feeding. Taxidermists, too, remark them to be fatter 

 at such times (occasionally very fat) than when killed during " the 

 dark of the moon." Montagu, indeed, has correctly observed 

 that " they feed frequently by moonlight, at which time they 

 become tolerably fat, being not only less disturbed in the night, 

 but it has been observed that fish then come into shoaler waters." 

 I have myself seen numbers of them fishing by moonlight in Bel- 

 fast bay ; and one which I shot in the act had just captured a 

 large Cottus scorpius, Linn, (or miller's thumb, as it is here called), 

 notwithstanding its formidable spinous armed head. In another 

 instance, in summer, when greater variety of food is afforded, I 

 saw one of these fish taken from a heron's stomach. Eennie 

 states that he " had never seen an instance of its fishing when 



* Pennant makes a similar remark in reference to the great crested grebe (Podi- 

 ceps cristatus) , viz. : — "The flesh of this bird is excessively rank ; but the fat is 

 of great virtue in rheumatic pains, cramps, and paralytic contractions." 



