556 GREAT HERON. 
The Great Heron is said to be fat at the full mcon, 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 
dexterity. At the edge of the river, pond, or sea-shore, he stands fixed 
and motionless, 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 
tothe 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 nymphe usually called spat- 
terdocks, 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 aright line behind him, appearing like a 
tail, and, probably, serving the same rudder-like office. When he 
leaves the sea-coast, 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 sea-shores 
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, 
meadows, and sea-marshes, this stately bird roams at pleasure, feast- 
ing on the never-failing magazines of frogs, fish, seeds, and insects, 
with which they abound, and of which he, probably, considers himself 
* “ The Heron,” says an English writer, ‘is a very great devourer of fish, and Goes 
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 inaday. 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 manne- of pike, with a baited hook. When the 
haunt of the Heron is found out, three of four small roach, or dace, are to be pro- 
cured, and each of them is be baited on a wire, with a strong hook at the end, en- 
tering the wire just at the gills, and letting it run just under the skin to the tail; the 
fish will live in this manner for five or six days, which is a very essential thing; for 
if it be dead, the Heron will not touch it. A strong line is then to be prepared of 
silk and wire twisted together, and is to be about two yards long; tie this to the 
wire that holds the hook, and to the other end of it there is to be tied a stone of 
about a pound weight; let three or four of these baits be sunk in different shallow 
parts of the pond, and, in a night or two’s time, the Heron will not fail to be taken 
with one or other of them 
