SAGACITY OF THE HERON. 
148 
this, too, is the reason that he accomplishes his journeys under cover of 
the night — betaking himself for the purpose of repose to the woodiest 
recess in the deepest wood he can find. His custom of fishing on dull 
and dreary days must not be attributed, according to some authorities, 
to any natural love of the sombre or depressing. His intelligence is 
active here. All anglers know that fish, and especially the salmon 
and the trout, easily take fright at shadows upon the water. They 
object to approach even a motionless shadow ; but when disturbed by 
one in movement, they dart away in a panic of terror, and do not 
return to the spot until after a considerable interval. The heron is 
aware of this important fact, and regulates his conduct accordingly. 
He fishes generally in the absence of the sun, when no shadow can fall 
athwart the water to scare his intended prey. And we have some- 
where read a still more forcible illustration of the heron's intelligence. 
When a river has overflowed the neighbouring country, it leaves, after 
once more subsiding within its basin, a number of little pools and 
basins of water stocked with fish. Now, in these the heron angles 
without heed of light or shadow ; knowing, it appears, that whether 
his victims are terrified or not they cannot escape. 
" O'er yonder shining lake the while, 
What bird about that wooded isle, 
With pendent feet and pinions slow, 
Is seen his ponderous length to row ? 
'Tis the tall heron's awkward flight, 
His crest of black and neck of white, 
Far sunk his gray-blue wings between, 
And giant legs of murky green. " 
So says Bishop Mant, in tha,t breezy, wholesome volume of his, "The 
British Months," which contains so many admirable sketches of land 
and water scenery, and so much exact observation of the aspects 
of Nature, animate and inanimate. 
Not long ago there was — and there may be still — a heronry in the 
beautiful Cobham Woods, near Gravesend. There is also, we believe, 
a heronry at Parham, in Sussex ; and a few others are scattered about 
over the country. Lonely as the heron is for the greater part of the 
year, he grows lively and fond of his kind at the breeding season ; 
