THE HERON AND HIS PREY. 
141 
SO characteristic a feature of the American coast from New York to 
Florida, he will build his nest, if undisturbed, for years. These swamps 
measure from five to six miles in length, and from half a mile to a mile 
in breadth, and apparently occupy the choked-up channel of some sea- 
creek, river, lake, or stream. To the stranger they present an array of 
tall, straight trunks, rising to the height of hfty or sixty feet before 
they throw off a branch, and with their crests so closely woven together 
as to exclude the day, and throw over the whole scene the shadow of 
a perpetual twilight. On approaching nearer, he sees that they spring 
sheer out of the water, which, with the fallen leaves and intertangled 
roots, has assumed a tawny hue. In among them lie the ruins of a 
desolated forest. The roots, the prostrate trunks, the reft boughs, even 
the pools of water, are deeply encrusted with green mantling moss ; 
while an undergrowth of laurel, fifteen to twenty feet high, fills up 
every opening, and increases the chaotic character of the scene. A 
death-like silence prevails here in calm weather; and a few chance 
shafts of light penetrate the wilderness, only to show how sombre 
and how desolate it is. In such a scene as this the heron stands, 
with head bent downwards in an attitude of brooding contemplation, 
— the very personification of a morose melancholy ! 
They are not courageous birds, these herons. Animals ever so little 
stronger than themselves they dread, and endeavour to avoid by timely 
flight ; and towards the weak they never show that generosity which 
should be a characteristic of strength. They live principally upon fish, 
though the smaller species, by the way, are to a great extent insecti- 
vores ; and of all it may be said that they will prey on any creatures 
which they can master, such as small mammals, young birds, almost 
every kind of reptile, molluscs, worms, crustaceans. Their long claws 
and light body enable them to stalk through the most fluid mud, and 
in this way to forage in all the swamps, pools, and water-courses. 
They take their prey by surprise. With the neck retracted, the head 
resting on the shoulders, the lower bill on the fore part of the neck, 
they wade into the water, advancing slowly and silently, lending an 
attentive and mistrustful ear to every sound, and carefully surveying 
the scene before them ; then suddenly, with the swiftness of a light- 
