O.50 
COM]\ION IIEKOiV. 
Upon the approach of winter. In England it is 
very abundant, and ap])ears to be stationary, 
although it migrates in some of the northern coun- 
tries of Europe : it resides, except in breeding 
time, throughout the marshy places and edges of 
streams, for the sake of its food, which consists of 
small fishes, frogs, young birds, or even small mam- 
malia ; and is consumed with great avidity and 
gluttony, its digestion being very rapid. This bird 
commits great devastation in ponds and shallow 
waters. As a j)roof of their appetite, it is asserted 
by Willoughby and others, that a single Heron 
will destroy fifty small roach and dace, one day 
with another. The Heron, though it generally 
takes its prey by wading into the water, and wait- 
ing patiently for its approach, frequently also 
catches it while on the wing, but this is only in 
shallow waters, where it is able to dart with more 
certainty than in the deep ; for in this case, though 
the fish does at the first sight of its enemy descend, 
yet the bird, with its long beak and legs, instantly 
pins it to the bottom, and then seizes it securely. 
Although so insatiable in its appetite, and always 
eating so freely, the Heron, wEen stripped of its 
feathers, appears as if it had been starved to death. 
In the breeding season the Herons unite to- 
gether in large societies, and build in the highest 
trees, placing the nests very near each other ; 
sometimes as many as eighty have been seen in 
one tree. Montagu mentions having seen a heronry 
on a small island in a lake in the north of Scotland, 
whereon there was only one scrubby oak free. 
