THE HERON 97 



partly digested fish right down into the pouch 

 of the young bird. Later the old heron brought 

 up an eel, introduced the head into the gullet 

 of its offspring, and then pushed it down inch 

 by inch. Before the young herons fly the food 

 is dropped into the nest from above, and they 

 pick it up for themselves. 



I made careful observations of the amount 

 of food fishes taken to the young, and I .also 

 carried out experiments on the rate of digestion. 

 The heronry consisted of fifty nests, and as a 

 result of my observations I estimated that the 

 young and old birds consumed forty-five tons of 

 fish during the months of May, June, July and 

 August. 



It seems to me quite impossible that herons 

 should be able to catch anything like this 

 quantity of fish unless they are invisible to their 

 prey; but the ease with which this bird can 

 catch the wily trout is conclusive proof to my 

 mind that the heron is concealed from the fish. 



Some years ago two friends and I stocked a 

 stream near Ipswich. This stream was ten 

 miles from the heronry described. When it was 

 high water on the Orwell some of the birds flew 

 over to the stream. On one afternoon I watched 



H 



