THE HERON. 



185 



I attribute the bad character which the heron has 

 with us, for destroying fish, more to erroneous 

 ideas, than to any well authenticated proofs that it 

 commits extensive depredations on our store-ponds. 

 Under this impression, which certainly has not 

 hitherto been to my disadvantage, I encourage this 

 poor persecuted wader to come and take shelter here; 

 and I am glad to see it build its nests in the trees 

 w^hich overhang the water, though carp, and tench, 

 and many other sorts of fish, are there in abundance. 

 Close attention to its habits has convinced me that 

 I have not done wrongly. Let us bear in mind that 

 the heron can neither swim nor dive ; wherefore the 

 range of its depredations on the finny tribe must 

 necessarily be very circumscribed. In the shallow 

 water only can it surprise the fish ; and, even there, 

 when we see it standing motionless, and suppose it 

 to be intent on striking some delicious perch or 

 passing tench, it is just as likely that it has waded 

 into the pond to have a better opportunity of trans- 

 fixing a water-rat lurking at the mouth of its hole, 

 or of gobbling dovvn some unfortunate frog which 

 had taken refuge on the rush-grown margin of the 

 pool. The water-rat may appear a large morsel to 

 be swallowed whole ; but so great are the expansive 

 powers of the heron's throat, that it can gulp down 

 one of these animals without much apparent diffi- 

 culty. As the ordinary food of this bird consists of 

 reptiles, quadrupeds, and fish, and as the herons can 

 only catch the fish when they come into shallow 

 water, I think we may fairly consider this wader as 



