IGO 
A GLUTTON HOOKED. 
Heron and the catcliiiig of a lady's heart were things coincident, 
added colour to our reminiscence. Things were felt to be changed ; 
while the birds remained the same — albeit chased no more, and at 
peace. 
With lis this bird is one of the most niimerous, as well as 
the best known of the order of waders, and formerly in the 
palmy days of falconry the places where it bred were held 
almost sacred ; the bird was considered royal game, and 
penal statutes were enacted for its preservation ; now it is 
little cared for, but has to depend upon its own sagacity 
for sustenance and safety. It is a great glutton, swallowing 
its food whole, and when successful in its fishing, in great 
quantities, as the following newspaper paragraph will 
testify : — * There was found dead lately, on the banks of the 
Pulganny, alias the water of Bladenoch, near Drumalmford 
House, a craigy Heron, the stomach of which, when ex- 
amined, actually contained the amazing number of thirty- 
nine fine burn trouts.' On one occasion, as we learn by the 
following story, by its voracity this silent fisher came to 
grief :— 
The old fisherman one day related to us a curious anecdote of a 
heron. Pulling quietly down the lake one morning in a boat with 
one of his sons to look at the trimmers he had set over night, he was 
struck by the unusual circumstance of seeing a heron rise from the 
water, reach a certain height, and then suddenly fall to the water 
again ; this was repeated two or three times before they reached the 
spot, and accompanied by much struggling, and the cries peculiar to the 
bird. When they came to the place they found that the heron was 
hooked, and that a fine pike, of about five or six pounds weight, lay 
on the surface of the water at the head of the trimmer. Taking 
hold of the line, they began to haul the bird in, but the nearer it 
came the greater its struggles and cries ; and at last it attacked the 
son, striking him on the side of the head with its long beak, and 
drawing blood. However, it was in time secured and brought away 
alive. It appears that the heron had struck the fish after it had 
taken the bait, and in eating it had extricated the bait to which the 
hook was fixed, and swallowed both together. Rising on the wing 
to escape, it could reach no further than the length of the line, and 
was consequently forced back again. 
Cuvier, in his ' Animal Kingdom,' gives this account of 
the habitsl^f the Erns, as they are called in most rural 
districts : — 
