J 1 30 ARDEA CINEREA. 



shy and keeps well out in the water, when it is shallow enough to wade at a distance from the shore. When 

 looking for fish it stalks along with slow and stealthy tread, generally going in one direction; the neck is 

 stretched out and carried at an angle of about 45°, and the bill held pointed down at right angles to the neck ; 

 occasionally I have seen it wading in water up to the body, and with its neck held stiffly out, giving an 

 awkward appearance to the bird. In tidal rivers it usually walks down stream, looking out for fish coming 

 up with the tide ; but at the sides of pools and ponds it stands motionless, keenly eyeing the water, with neck 

 drawn in, until a fish is espied, when it darts on it with the utmost rapidity and an unerring aim. Quantities 

 of fish are consumed by Herons, its great partiality being for eels in countries where these abound ; but their 

 diet is by no means confined to fish, for, in the winter especially, they frequent the rocks on the sea-shore, 

 and feed on shrimps, crabs, and shell-fish. Water-rats and mice are not unfrequeutly captured, and bolted 

 head foremost ; and in attempting this the Hei'on sometimes loses its life. Of late years two instances have 

 come under my notice in which birds have been choked in attempting to swallow a rat too large for the throat. 

 In one case a very large rat had been swallowed, and a second was fouud with its hind quarters hanging from 

 the gape, and the shoulders firmly jammed into the throat. This species will sometimes pounce on a dead bird, 

 as I am informed by a gentleman in Wales, in whose grounds a large Heronry is situated, that he once shot 

 at a Jack-Snipe, which flew some distance and then fell, when it was no sooner snapped up by a Heron which 

 had been flushed by the shot and was flying past where the Snipe dropped. The Heron feeds a good deal 

 by night, frequenting streams flowing through marshes on moonlight nights. 



The flight of the Heron is slow, being performed with heavy flaps of the wings ; the neck is drawn quite 

 in and the feet extended, the legs brought close together, and sometimes the feet are crossed ; and just before 

 alighting, as I observed when standing iu a heronry and looking up at the birds, the hind toe is stretched out as 

 if to get ready to perch on the first branch to hand. The ordinary note of the Heron is a loud hraak repeated 

 at intervals ; but while breeding its voice is varied. A pair, on alighting on different trees, call to one another 

 with a deep-sounding note like kronk-kronk , and when sitting down on their nests one hears a low contented 

 sort of call — kruk, krak, krak, quickly repeated. It is remarkable how well Herons hold with their feet to 

 ;< small branch ; they are capable of alighting on mere twigs, and keep themselves balanced by flapping the 

 wings. In India, as in Europe, the Heron has always been a favourite quarry for the Falcon, and is said 

 sometimes to inflict severe wounds on its captor with its powerful beak; but, as is remarked by Jerdon (an 

 extract from whose article I have given at p. 104 of this work), it is considered in India quite erroneous that 

 the Heron ever transfixes a Falcon with its bill. 



In parts of India this Heron is kept for decoy purposes, as also for food, its flesh being esteemed by the 

 natives. Mr. Hume thus writes of it as observed in Sindh : — "About every fisherman's village hundreds may 

 be seen perched about on the boats, or stacks of brushwood thrown into the water, and on poles, perfectly 

 motionless, and more like stuffed than living birds. The eyelids of all are sewn up ; they dare not move, poor 

 things, and wherever they are placed for the day, there they remain immovable. Generally they are lightly 

 tethered by one leg ; but I saw several, perhaps old prisoners, in no way tied. Now and again they run their 

 hills along their feathers, or flap their wings feebly; but, as a rule, they stand like statues. The people feed 

 them liberally, and say they grow very fat in confinement, and obviously appreciate them as much as an 

 article of diet as our ancestors appear to have done. Sometimes these birds get loose in this way, or being 

 loose, take it into their heads to fly. I myself saw one go off in this way, and then it mounted in short circles 

 straight up into the sky until we entirely lost sight of it ; and this, the boatman assured me, was what invariably 

 happened in similar cases. What eventually comes of these no one seems to know; of course they must 

 ultimately drop exhausted to the ground, but probably at great distances from where they started, for the 

 livhcrmen say that never, by any chance, do they again see a bird that thus escapes." 



Nidification. — The nesting-season of the Heron in Ceylon varies between November and March, in which 

 latter month it commences to lay in England. In the eastern and northern divisions of the island, wherever 

 there is a large breeding-colony of Pelicans, Comorants, Egrets, or Ibises, one is sure to find a few pairs of 

 Herons nesting. They breed at Uduwila and other places in the south, near Triucomalie, Kokelai, and 

 Mullaittivu, and in the Kurunegala district at Nikaweratiya. Besides these situations known to me, there must 

 be many other spots in the northern half of the island. I have found the nests in low trees growing in the 



