212 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH INLAND BIRDS 
HERON. 
{Ardea cinerea!) 
Hern, Crane. — Though a heronry is not to be 
found in every English neighbourhood, the Heron, 
either long-limbed at rest, or with his magnificent 
spread of wing in stately flight, is to be seen at times 
in most parts of the country during the winter. In 
many rivers and estuaries he is a very familiar bird 
indeed ; and owing to the long distances which he 
often covers to reach his feeding-grounds, he is a 
well-known sight for many miles round each of the 
places where he nests. He is one of the largest 
English birds, and the gift of flight never seems a 
greater wonder in human eyes than when we see 
his huge wings suddenly take shape among the 
reeds at the water's edge, and heave slowly into the 
air in apparent disregard of all the laws of gravity. 
Very curious, too, but more quaint than stately, are 
the antics of the birds in the top of their nesting- 
trees at any time in the nesting-season, but especially 
in very early spring, when they are building or re- 
pairing their nests. The long legs and necks seem 
then so greatly in the way, and the Herons straddling 
in the naked oak-crowns so much resemble geese 
practising on stilts, that the spectacle is one of the 
queerest imaginable. The Heron does not seem 
