HERON. 



251 



scapulars grey and white, which, with those on the lower part of the 

 neck, are long and loose ; wing- coverts bluish grey ; the bastard wings 

 and greater quill-feathers black ; the sides of the body, from the breast 

 to below the thighs, black ; middle of the breast and belly white ; 

 thighs white, tinged with rust-colour; the tail is short, of a bluish 

 ash-colour; legs very long, of a dull greenish colour; the middle claw 

 serrated. 



The female wants the black and white feathers on the head, instead 

 of which that part is bluish grey, and not much elongated into a crest, 

 as in the male ; the feathers on the breast and scapulars are not so long 

 and loose. The young male birds are like the female for some time. 

 Linnaeus has made the two sexes distinct species ; others were long of 

 the same opinion, but later observations have corrected the mistake. 



This bird is found in most parts of the known world; is common 

 in England. It is a great destroyer of fish, both sea and fresh-water ; 

 and is enabled, by the great length of its legs, to wade into some depth 

 of water, where it stands motionless till some of the finny tribe ap- 

 proach, when in an instant it darts its bill into them. Its digestion is 

 as quick as its appetite is voracious, and of course commits vast devas- 

 tation in ponds and shallow waters. They feed frequently by moon- 

 light, at which time they become tolerably fat, being not only less 

 disturbed in the night, but it has been observed that fish then come 

 into the shoaler waters : besides fish, frogs and toads have been found 

 in their stomachs. 



In the breeding season they congregate, and make their nests very 

 near each other. Mr. Pennant mentions having seen eighty nests on 

 one tree. We once saw a heronry on a small island in a lake in the 

 north of Scotland, whereon there was only one scrubby oak tree, which 

 not being sufficient to contain all the nests, many were placed on tbe 

 ground. 



* The Heronries recorded to be existing at present in this country, 

 are at Penhurst Place, Kent ; at Hutton, the seat of Mr. Bethel, near 

 Beverley, in Yorkshire ; at Picton, the seat of Lord Caernarvon ; in 

 Gobay Park, on the road to Penrith, near a rocky pass called Yew 

 Crag, on the north side of the romantic lake of Ulswater; at Cressi 

 Hall, six miles from Spalding, in Lincolnshire ; at Downington, in 

 Holland, in the same county ; at Brockley Woods, near Bristol ; at 

 Brownsea Island, near Poole, in Dorsetshire ; and at Windsor. Besides 

 these, I am acquainted with a small one in the parish of Craigie, near 

 Kilmarnock, in Ayrshire, the only one, save that near Ulswater, which 

 I have visited. 



