112 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



roosting-places and look-out stations of these wander- 

 ing youths, but it is not often that any considerable 

 number of old birds visit us before August ; from 

 that season till the breeding-time one or two Herons 

 may be found at almost every shallow on the Nen, 

 and at our ponds and brooks. In the winter it is by 

 no means uncommon to see a dozen or more congre- 

 gated in our open meadows at some " splashy " spot 

 or, in a frost, at an open spring-head. Few birds 

 are more wary than an experienced old Heron, their 

 eye-sight and hearing being remarkably acute ; the 

 young birds, however, may sometimes with caution 

 be closely approached, and I hardly know a more 

 laughable exhibition than that of a party of these 

 long-legged fishers suddenly startled by the intrusion 

 of a human being — besides the natural alarm there is 

 a sort of shame-facedness and hesitation about what 

 is the right thing to do, the right way to go, and how 

 best to dispose of necks and legs, that mutatis 

 mutandis remind one of bashful youths of our own 

 species at a " small and early " evening party or 

 suddenly discovered in some petty social delinquency. 

 AVhere four or five young Herons are thus abruptly 

 startled it is not unusual for one to blunder against 

 another, and flap off with loud expostulations, 

 probably something of the nature of " Now then, 

 stupid ! " or " It's all your fault." 



Herons travel and certainly feed to a great extent 

 by night ; but their digestion is very rapid, and their 

 nocturnal repasts are entirely " without prejudice " 

 to diurnal meals whenever a favourable opportunity 

 occurs ; very few small animals come amiss to them 

 — rats, moles, voles, mice, small birds, fishes of every 

 kind, frogs, and earth-worms are indiscriminately 



