152 ardeid^:. 



a beautiful lemon yellow. The body of the little creature was so bare 

 of plumage as to resemble a bladder well filled with some dark-coloured 

 matter. The neck, legs, and bill appeared larger in proportion to the 

 age of the bird than they were in the adult heron. Its appetite, even 

 at that early period, was most voracious, and it snapped at everything 

 placed within reach. To keep it from choking itself I had to place the 

 captive in a deep basket, the top of which was covered with flannel, 

 having a hole through which the head was allowed to protrude, and 

 where it gradually became very comfortable. It was quite powerless on 

 its legs. Fish and pieces of flesh were greedily devoured, until it was 

 completely gorged. Its harsh grating cry was kept up without inter- 

 mission, unless plenty of food was before it. The increase in its size was 

 astonishingly rapid, and ere many weeks elapsed it was walking about 

 fully half the size of the adult bird. I spent about two months of the 

 autumn at Holywood, to which place it was removed, and kept there in a 

 small yard attached to the house. Early in September it was almost ready 

 for flight, being not unfrequently detected upon the top of the wall, and 

 having made two or three successful attempts to get over it. Its plu- 

 mage now resembled that of the adult in colour and markings, the dark 

 spots down the neck becoming daily more distinct. In September we 

 removed to town, and our bird with us ; and it has remained there in 

 good health until the present time (April 1849). 



" This heron has become a great pet with me. I never go into the 

 yard that it does not come up calling for food; and should I not 

 respond to the call, it makes a most singular snapping noise with its 

 bill, and lays hold of my trowsers or shoes, as if coaxing me to attend 

 to it. With myself only, however, is it so companionable ; for if a 

 stranger enters the yard, or even female servants, it either avoids them 

 altogether, or, what is much more commonly the case, attacks them 

 more or less fiercely. A hostler being given admittance to the yard for 

 water, the first morning he came the heron observed him enter, and at 

 once set up his cry of defiance, stalking after the man, and finally seiz- 

 ing him fiercely by the clothes. The poor man was unable to get to 

 the water-barrel owing to the heron's pertinaciously snapping at him 

 when he attempted to draw the wafer. Hearing an outcry in the yard 

 T went out, and it required all my influence, aided by a large stick, to 

 keep the man safe from his attack.* 



* When visiting the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park, London, in the summer 



