COMMON HERON. 471 



1"5 inch. It is absolutely impossible to distinguish the eggs of this 

 species from those of the Purple Heron and the Great White Egret. 

 Should the nests be approached, the old birds make little noise, but rise 

 into the air and fly anxiously above the trees. Only one brood is reared 

 in the year. 



The Heron obtains much of its food at night, especially when the 

 moon is at the full. It feeds largely on fish, frogs, lizards, insects, small 

 mammals, and occasionally a young bird. Dixon found the skeleton of a 

 small wader in a nest of a Heron in Skye, and it is said to feed habitually 

 on young Waterhens and Coots. It is a voracious feeder, and very 

 rapidly digests the food it takes. Sometimes it may be seen wandering 

 about on the beach at low water, searching amongst the stones and rocks 

 for small crabs and shrimps. Its partiality for fish renders it objection- 

 able to the river-keepers, by whom it is often shot ; and in the breeding- 

 season, when the hungry voracious young are ever clamouring for -food, 

 it levies no small tribute on the fish-ponds and streams. The Heron often 

 has to fly for a considerable distance to obtain food for its young, and 

 may then be seen passing through the air almost as regularly as the Rook. 

 The smell in a Heronry arising from the decayed fish, especially on a 

 warm close day in late spring, is very objectionable. 



The colour of the plumage of the adult male Heron is a mixture of 

 black, white, and slate-grey. The black is distributed in the following 

 manner : — On each side of the head a broad streak extends to the nape, 

 where it is prolonged into a crest, ornamented with two or more long 

 narrow feathers ; a row of spots extends down the fore neck, leading to a 

 broad stripe on each side of the breast and belly ; the primaries, primary- 

 coverts, and secondaries are dark slate-grey, approaching black ; the rest 

 of the wing-coverts, axillaries, flanks, rump, upper tail-coverts, tail, 

 scapulars, and mantle are pale slate-grey. The feathers of the lower back 

 are also slate-grey, shading into white at the tip, which is prolonged into 

 a narrow plume, as are also the feathers on the lower neck. The rest of 

 the plumage is white. Bill, a bare space before the eye, and irides yellow ; 

 legs and feet reddish brown, sufixised with reddish yellow on the tibia; 

 claws black. The female resembles the male in colour, but is slightly 

 smaller, and the crest is not quite so long. In the young in first plumage 

 the forehead and crown are grey instead of white ; the crest is very short 

 and dark slate-grey ; the slate-grey of the back is more or less sufi'used 

 with brown, the elongated feathers of the back and neck are absent, and 

 the black on the breast and belly is only represented by greyish-brown 

 stripes. The upper mandible is more or less brown, and the legs and feet 

 are dark grey, sufiused with yellowish green, especially on the tibia. After 

 the first moult, which is completed by the time the bird is a year old, the 



