THE HERON AND THE EEL. 227 



Talue a thousand fold. On the Continent many lakes and ponds 

 have been stocked with elvers, packed in wet grass, and sent by 

 the railroads or the post far into the interior of the country. 



Eels are pre-eminently nocturnal animals. They always con- 

 gregate at the darkest parts of the stews in which they are 

 kept, and invariably select the darkest nights for their autumnal 

 migration to the sea. Owing to the smallness of their gill 

 aperture, the membranous folds of which, by closing the orifice 

 when the eel is out of the water, prevents the desiccation of the 

 branchise, they have the power of living a long time out of the 

 water when the air is humid, and not unfrequently travel 

 during the night over the moist surface of meadows or gardens 

 in quest of frogs or other suitable food. 



That eels are not devoid of sagacity is proved by many well 

 authenticated anecdotes. " In Otaheite," says Ellis in his " Poly- 

 nesian Eesearches," " they are fed till they attain an enormous 

 size. These pets are kept in large holes two or three feet deep, 

 partially filled with water. On the sides of these pits they 

 generally remain, excepting when called by the person who 

 feeds them. I have been several times with the young chief 

 when he has sat down by the side of the hole, and by giving a 

 shrill sort of whistle has brought out an enormous eel, which 

 has moved about the surface of the water and eaten with confi- 

 dence out of his master's hand." 



The eel has many enemies, among others the common heron, 

 who, in spite of the slippery skin of his victim, knows how to 

 drive his denticulated middle claw into his body, or to strike 

 him with his pointed bill. Yarrell relates that a heron had 

 once struck his sharp beak through the head of an eel, piercing 

 both eyes, and that the eel — no doubt remembering that one 

 good turn deserves another — had coiled itself so tightly round 

 the neck of the heron as to stop the bird's respiration : both 

 were dead. 



The London market is principally supplied with eels from 

 Holland, a country where they abound. According to Mr. 

 Mayhew, about ten millions of eels, amounting to a weight of 

 1,500,000 lbs., are annually sold in Billingsgate market. These 

 figures show us at once that the multiplication of eels in our 

 sluggish rivers, which only contain such fish as are compara- 

 tively speaking worthless, is a matter worth consideration, and 



