.' THE NI&HT-HERON OF TARTARY. ] £ w 



THE NIGHT-HERON OF TARTARY. 



IN THE MENAGERY OF MR. CROSS, KING'S MEWS, CHARING CROSS. 



This bird may be considered as one of the smallest of the heron tribe, and is a very rare specimen in 

 the menageries of this country. In height it is about one foot three inches, presenting, in other 

 respects, the general characteristics of its species. Its colour is a light ash, inclining to white towards 

 the bill, a jet black on the top of the back and on the crown of the head. The eye is very full, the 

 iris being of a golden colour, the pupil a clear black. The bill is long, strong and sharp-pointed, the 

 nostrils are linear, and the tongue pointed. In length it is about three inches, and, like the other 

 species of its tribe, appears to be particularly adapted for catchino- fish. 



The night-heron is now an extremely scarce bird, and is chiefly an inhabitant of Tartary and 

 the adjacent countries. It was formerly known in Scotland, but in that country it is now wholly 

 extinct. It inhabits the fens and marshes and the sides of rivulets, into which it is enabled 

 to wade for the purpose of securing its prey, which generally consists of the smaller kinds of 

 fish, as neither its size nor its strength will enable it to pursue the larger kinds, although, in 

 some instances, it has been known to attack fish of five times its own magnitude, but, not being 

 able to bear them off, has left them to be devoured by birds of more voracious appetite and 

 greater muscular powers. The comparative shortness of its legs will not allow it to wade into deep 

 rivers; on the contrary, it generally stands on the bank, watching the finny tribe as they pass, 

 and so sure is its aim, that it seldom fails in wounding the object of its attack. Like all other 

 herons, its appetite appears to be rather of a voracious nature, and it must be generally considered 

 that the heron is one of the most formidable enemies of the scaly tribes. There is in fresh waters 

 scarcely a fish, however large, that the heron will not strike at and wound, though unable to carry it 

 off, but the smaller fry are his chief subsistence ; these, pursued by their larger fellows of the deep, are 

 compelled to take refuge in shallow waters, where they find the heron tribe a still more formidable 

 enemy. His method is to wade as far as he can go into the water, and there patiently to await the 

 approach of his prey, into which, when it comes within his sight, he darts his bill with inevitable 

 aim. Willoughby says, he has seen a heron that had in his stomach no fewer than seventeen carp. 

 Some gentlemen, who kept some herons, were desirous of ascertaining what average quantity one of 

 these birds would devour. They consequently put several small roach and dace into a tub, and the 

 heron, one day with another, ate fifty in a clay. Thus a single heron is able to destroy nine thousand 

 store carp in half a year. 



The heron, though he usually takes his prey by wading, frequently catches it while on the wing, 

 but this is only in shallow waters, where he is able to dart with more certainty than in the deep ; for 

 in this case, though the fish, at the first sight of its enemy, descends, yet the heron, with its long bill 

 and legs, instantly pins it to the bottom, and thus seizes it securely. In this manner, after having been 

 seen with its neck for above a minute under water, he will rise on wing with a trout or an eel strug- 

 gling in his bill. The greedy bird, however, flies to the shore, swallows it, and returns to his fishing. 



The different parts of the body of the heron are admirably adapted to its mode of life. The bird 

 has long legs, for the purpose of wading ; a long neck, answerable to these, to reach its prey in the 

 water, and a wide throat to swallow it. The toes are long and armed with strong hooked talons, one 



