296 
GREAT HERON. 
the old birds fly occasionally over the spot, sometimes honking like a 
Goose, sometimes uttering a coarse hollow grunting noise like that of a 
hog, but much louder. 
The Great Heron is said to be fat at the full moon, and lean at its 
decrease ; this might be accounted for by the fact of thdr fishing 
regularly by moonlight through the greater part of the night, as well 
as during the day ; but the observation is not universal, for at such 
times I have found some lean as well as others fat. The young are 
said to be excellent for the table, and even the old birds, when in good 
order, and properly cooked, are esteemed by many. 
The principal food of the Great Heron is fish, for which he watches 
with the most unwearied patience, and seizes them with surprising dex- 
terity. At the edge of the river, pond or seashore he stands fixed and 
motionless, sometimes for hours together. But his stroke is quick as 
thought, and sure as fate to the first luckless fish that approaches within 
his reach ; these he sometimes beats to death, and always swallows head 
foremost, such being their uniform position in the stomach. He is also 
an excellent mouser, and of great service to our meadows in destroying 
the short-tailed or meadow mouse, so injurious to the banks. He also 
feeds eagerly on grasshoppers, various winged insects, particularly 
dragon flies, which he is very expert at striking, and also eats the seeds 
of that species of nymphte usually called splatter docks, so abundant 
along our fresh water ponds and rivers. 
The Heron has great powers of wing, flying sometimes very high, 
and to a great distance ; his neck doubled, his head drawn in, and his 
long legs stretched out in a right line behind him, appearing like a tail, 
and probably serving the same rudder-like office. When he leaves the 
seacoast, 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 vigilant 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 seashores 
and rivers are free to all for the amusement of fishing. Luxury has 
not yet constructed her thousands of fish ponds, and surrounded them 
with steel traps, spring guns, and Heron snares.* In our vast fens, 
* "The Heron," says an English writer, "is a very great devourer of fish, and 
does more mischief in a pond than an otter. People who have kept Herons have 
had the curiosity to number the fish 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 year ; and will hunt 
them so close as to let very few escape. The readiest method of destroying this 
mischievous bird is by fishing for him in the manner of pike, with a baited hook. 
