96 ANIMAL LIFE UNDER WATER 



I spent three days watching the feeding habits 

 of the birds in this heronry. 



Though the adult heron will devour rats, 

 water voles, shrews, toads, frogs, shellfish, 

 shrimps and young birds, the young at the 

 heronry were fed almost entirely on fish. 



The old birds appeared above the wood in 

 April, and for several days wheeled round and 

 round the tall tree-tops before they commenced 

 to repair the nests used during the previous 

 breeding season. Early in May each nest con- 

 tained three, sometimes four, eggs. While the 

 birds were sitting comparative peace reigned at 

 the heronry. As soon, however, as the young 

 hatched, the wood resounded night and day with 

 the guttural notes of the old herons and the cries 

 of the young as the parents returned to the nests 

 from the fishing-ground. The fledglings were 

 fed frequently, and I have seen a parent return 

 with food eleven times within two hours. The 

 older birds were fed early in the morning and 

 again in the evening. 



The fish brought to the young were mainly 

 eels. A young heron only three weeks old 

 was often given an eel of half a pound in 

 weight. At first the parents regurgitated the 



