ARDEID.E. 181 



brown meat closely resemliling that of -i hare in flavour. A Heron, when 

 tishiug, iri a model of patience. See him, standing in the water, motion- 

 less a.s ]f asleep, remaining in the same attitude until at last some tish 

 has approached within his reach, when down comes the formidable beak 

 with lightniijg rapidity and rarely misses its prej'. A wounded Heron 

 should be approached with caution, as the bird can strike very smartly 

 and, iuvariabl}', if he can, aims at the eye. In severe weather we have 

 come across i'rozen-out Herons so weak and starved that they have 

 allowed us to capture them with the hand. ISuch we have taken home 

 and carefully nursed, feeding them with raw meat, &c., but after a few 

 days we have always found ihem dead, liefore beginning his evening's 

 fishing a Heron likes to settle on a tree near the water, where he will 

 remain for some time in meditation. Two small fishponds on our grounds 

 were much afl'ected by Herons ; one of them Avas bordered on one side by 

 old oaks, on which the birds loved to settle, and the other was a favourite 

 haunt because of the multitude of frogs which inhabited its shallows. 

 Here of an evening we have counted seven Herons either meditating or 

 busily engaged in fishing. A few years since, after a severe gale, a Heron 

 was caugnt at Htracombc and brought alive to Mr. "W. Urodrick, then 

 residing there. He turned it into a yard which was tenanted by a fine 

 Gordon setter, between whom and the bird a warm friendship was at once 

 established. The dog allowed the Heron to pick the choicest bits out of 

 his food-bucket ; and we have seen the bird standing as close as it could 

 get to its friend, its beak resting afi'ectionately on the dog's forehead. 

 Udt one morning the Heron was found choking from a bone which had 

 lodged in its gullet, and, although tracheotomy was successfully performed, 

 and the bone removed, the Heron died the next day, to the great grief 

 of Chuff, tlie setter. 



West Counirif Heronries. 



Shute Park, near Axminster, the seat of the Poles, established a few years 

 before 1«52 (G. P. 11. P., ' Naturalist,' 1852, p. 35). The birds are 

 stated to have removed to Htedcombe {id., ' Uook of the Axe,' 



Killerton, near Exeter (Sir T. D. Aeland, Bart.), on beeches near the house 



(Henry ]5urney, Zool. 187^3, p. 3051, and 11. C, v.v.). 

 Powderham Park (I^ord i)evon), on tlio estuary of the Exe, on oak trees. 

 Sharpham, on the I>art, the seat of the Durants, about twenty nests. 

 PcUever, on Dartmoor (Mr. Templer), on larch trees (W. W. P., iu litl.). 

 TotiKS, single pairs in the woods (S. llannaford). 

 Halwell Wood (Capt. Hallifax), on tlie Kingsltridge estuary. More than 



thirty nests there in April 1881 (E. A. S. E.). 

 "Woods ()[)[)osito llton Castle, also on the Kingsbridge estuary, on low 



fir trees {id.). 

 Auneniouth, on the Avon, in small numbers ('V^.). 

 Little Orcherton Wood, at the mouth of the Ernie (liev. Cf. C. Creen, 



Pidsley'a ii. of JJcvonsliiro). 

 Warleigh, on the Tauiar, the seat of the Uadclilfe familv. 



