296 GREAT HERON. 



the old birds fly occasionally over the spot, sometimes honking like a 

 Goose, sometimes uttering a coarse hollow grunting noise like that of a 

 hog, but much louder. 



The Great Heron is said to be fat at the full moon, and lean at its 

 decrease; this might be accounted for by the fact of their fishing 

 regularly by moonlight through the greater part of the night, as well 

 as during the day ; but the observation is not universal, for at such 

 times I have found some lean as well as others fat. The young are 

 said to be excellent for the table, and even the old birds, when in good 

 order, and properly cooked, are esteemed by many. 



The principal food of the Great Heron is fish, for which he watches 

 with the most unwearied patience, and seizes them with surprising dex- 

 terity. At the edge of the river, pond or seashore he stands fixed and 

 inotionless, sometimes for hours together. But his stroke is quick as 

 thought, and sure as fate to the first luckless fish that approaches within 

 his reach ; these he sometimes beats to death, and always swallows head, 

 foremost, such being their uniform position in the stomach. He is also 

 an excellent mouser, and of great service to our meadows in destroying 

 the short-tailed or meadow mouse, so injurious to the banks. He also 

 feeds eagerly on grasshoppers, various winged insects, particularly 

 dragon flies, which he is very expert at striking, and also eats the seeds 

 of that species of nymphse usually called splatter docks, so abundant 

 along our fresh water ponds and rivers. 



The Heron has great powers of wing, flying sometimes very high, 

 and to a great distance ; his neck doubled, his head drawn in, and his 

 long legs stretched out in a right line behind him, appearing like a tail, 

 and probably serving the same rudder-like oflice. When he leaves the 

 seacoast, and traces on wing the courses of the creeks or rivers 

 upwards, he is said to prognosticate rain ; when downwards, dry 

 weather. He is most jealously vigilant and watchful of man, so that 

 those who wish to succeed in shooting the Heron, must approach him 

 entirely unseen, and by stratagem. The same inducements, however, 

 for his destruction do not prevail here as in Europe. Our seashores 

 and rivers are free to all for the amusement of fishing. Luxury has 

 not yet constructed her thousands of fish ponds, and surrounded them 

 with steel traps, spring guns, and Heron snares.* In our vast fens, 



* " The Heron," says an English writer, " is a very great devourer of fish, and 

 does more mischief in a pond than an otter. People who have kept Herons have 

 had the curiosity to number the fish they feed them with, into a tub of water, and 

 counting them again afterwards, it has been found that they will eat up fifty 

 moderate dace and roaches in a day. It has been found that in carp ponds visited 

 by this bird, one Heron will eat up a thousand store carp in a year; and will hunt 

 them so close as to let very few escape. The readiest method of destroying this 

 mischievous bird is by fishing for him in the manner of pike, with a baited hook. 



