THE HERON 95 



able for wading, this is exactly what the heron 

 can and does do. I .will give examples of the 

 numbers of fish taken by herons — numbers 

 which it would be impossible for them to catch 

 unless they were concealed from their prey. 



On December 22nd, 1913, the late Mr. 

 Hudson, of Ipswich, shot two herons on the 

 Orwell, an adult and a young bird. In the 

 gullet of the old bird he found one complete 

 whiting, and later, when I examined the semi- 

 digested contents, I found otoliths, lenses and 

 bones, as shown on the plate facing page 96. 

 Among the contents were seventy-six otoliths 

 similar to those shown on the top row, which 

 indicated that this heron had taken no fewer 

 than thirty-nine whiting within the previous 

 twelve hours. The next two rows are the eye 

 lenses and vertebrae of these fish taken at various 

 periods during the twelve hours. The bottom 

 row shows otoliths triturated down from the sizes 

 illustrated to a disappearing point. These were 

 from whiting taken on the previous day. The 

 young bird had taken thirty-one whiting. Both 

 these birds came from a heronry in the middle of 

 a wood on the banks of the Orwell. 



On one occasion, on a platform up in a tree, 



