362 GEALLATOEES, OE WADING BIEDS. 



some species are stationarj', and thej^ are to be met with all the 

 year round in countries the most dissimilar. 



The i^rincipal species of Herons are the Ash-coloured or 

 Common Heron (Fig. 141), the Purple Heron, the White Heron, 

 the Bittern, the Night Heron, and the Crab-eater. 



Every one knows the Grey Heron {Ardea dnereci), at least by 

 reputation, if only from La Fontaine's verse : — 



" Heroii with the long bill, fit handle of a longer neck." 



Its height is about forty inches, and it is found in nearly all parts 

 of the globe. It is the most common of the French Herons, and 

 the only one which joins its fellows during the breeding season, in 

 order to build their nests and sit on their eggs, and rear their 

 j'oung in compan3^ The place appropriated for this assemblage is 

 generally a clump of loity trees in the neighbourhood of some 

 large lake or river. On the summits of these trees, or in the 

 angles formed by the branches, the Herons build their nests, 

 which are of very simple construction — a few boughs interwoven 

 together with smaller twigs, and without anj^ additions, such 

 as moss, grass, &c., with which smaller birds love to line 

 thei)' dwellings. In these nests the females lay three or four 

 eggs, and the males share with them the cares of incubation. 

 After the eggs aie hatched, the male assists in the nourishment 

 of the young familj'. Frequentlj^ he disgorges into the bills 

 of his young ones the frogs and small fry he has just swal- 

 lowed ; sometimes he divides among them a large hsh which he 

 brings from the adjacent lake or the more distant sea-shore. 

 Occasionally thej^ undertake journeys in order to insure abun- 

 dance for their progenj', and their excursions often extend over 

 a very considerable tract of country. 



When the young Herons are able to fly, they leave the nest and 

 provide for their own wants. 



But the time ibr migration has arrived. About the beginnino- 

 of August, and alwaj^s at the same date, the colonj', then amount- 

 ing to five or six hundred individuals, range themselves in order 

 and quit the heronry. The following year they return thither, 

 and their arrival, like their departure, takes place on a regular 



