GREAT HERON. 



31 



in, and his long legs stretched out in a right line behind him, ap- 

 pearing like a tail, and probably serving the same rudder-like 

 office. When he leaves the sea coast, and traces on wing the 

 courses of the creeks or rivers upwards, he is said to prognosticate 

 rain; when downwards, dry weather. He is most jealously vigi- 

 lant and watchful of man, so that those who wish to succeed in 

 shooting the Heron, must approach him entirely unseen, and by 

 stratagem. The same inducements, however, for his destruction 

 do not prevail here as in Europe. Our sea shores and rivers are 

 free to all for the amusement of fishing. Luxury has not yet con- 

 structed her thousands of fish ponds, and surrounded them with 

 steel traps, spring guns, and Heron snares. In our vast fens, mea- 

 dows and sea marshes, this stately bird roams at pleasure, feast- 

 ing on the never-failing magazines of frogs, fish, seeds and insects 

 with which they abound, and of which he probably considers him- 

 self the sole lord and proprietor. I have several times seen the 

 Bald Eagle attack and tease the Great Heron ; but whether for 

 sport, or to make him disgorge his fish, I am uncertain. 



The common Heron of Europe (Ardea major) very much re- 

 sembles the present, which might, as usual, have probably been 

 ranked as the original stock, of which the present was a mere de- 



* "The Heron," says an English writer, "is a verj great devourer offish, and does more mis- 

 cliief in a pond than an otter. People who have kept Herons have had the curiosity to niimher the 

 iish they feed them with, into a tub of water, and counting them again afterwards, it has been found 

 that they will eat up fifty moderate dace and roaches in a day. It has been found that in carp ponds 

 visited by this bird, one Heron will eat up a thousand store carp in a yearj and will hunt them so close 

 as to let very few escape. The readiest method of destroying tliis mischievous bird is by fishing for 

 him in the manner of pike, with a baited hook. When the haunt of the Heron is found out, three or 

 four small roach, or dace, are to be procured, and each of them is to be baited on a wire, with a strong 

 hook at the end, entering the wire just at the gills, and letting it run just under the skin to the tail; 

 the fish will live in this manner for five or six days, which is a very essential thing; for if it be dead, 

 the Heron will not touch it. A strong line is then to be prepared of silk and wire twisted together, 

 and is to be about two yards long; tie this to the wire that holds the hook, and to the other end of it 

 there is to be tied a stone of about a pound weight; let three or four of these baits be sunk in different 

 shallow parts of the pond, and in a night or two's time the Heron will not fail to be taken with one or 

 other of them." 



