HERON. 
123 
this juncture he, I could plainly see, touched his forehead with thanks, until I 
feared a funeral was impending, and so directed him to get above the nest, lie 
close to the trunk, and cut off the branch on which the nest rested ; this he did 
by means of the saw passed up to him by the string he carried. Some time was 
occupied in sawing away lesser branches, until the main one was attacked. As it 
cracked, two great birds nearly as large as the parent, ran out along the branches, 
and had to be brought to earth by the rifle. At last the bough with the great 
nest swayed, broke off, turned over in the air, righted itself, and finally fell upright 
supported by the underwood ; with it came the old bird, a magnificent and fully 
adult male, with lengthy plumes and crests, together with the half of a large Eel, 
which he had brought to his young. Two balls had passed right through the 
centre of his body, within two inches of each other, either of which would have 
been fatal. The nest — an enormous structure, four feet across, and two feet 
thick, built of sticks (everyone “ whitewashed ”) and afterwards filling a cart — had 
not sustained the slightest injury, and was not even jolted out of the forks in 
which it was built. Lucas came down as he went up, assisted by the rope, and, 
from the time of the bird being shot, to the getting of the nest, occupied us 
between four and five hours. Needless to say, he had not a minute to wait for 
his well-earned reward, and soon commenced to climb the tree from whence I had 
shot the female, and to my delight procured from her nest four small “ chicks,” 
which, by their charmingly-quaint hair-like crests and downy plumage, to say 
nothing of their size, were in striking contrast to the other two young birds. 
Soon after this we found an unbroken, quite fresh, egg lying on the ground at 
the foot of a tree, deposited, probably, by a gravid bird. 
Four more adult birds were brought down, and thus, firing altogether nine 
rifle-shots, I bagged eight birds, five of which, viz. the male and his two young, 
another male, and the female — with the latter’s four chicks, the two nests, the Eel, 
and the egg — are in the JMuseum, mounted in a plate-glass case, six feet cube, the 
nests being embellished with the leaves and buds of the elm carefully reproduced 
by modelling on the natural twigs. 
Harley wrote, at p. 423 of his ‘ Synopsis ’ : — “ The most noteworthy and 
remarkable bird that appears to have visited Groby Pool of late years was a white 
Heron shot by Chaplin a few years ago. It was purely white, with black legs and 
a yellow bill, having also an elongated occipital crest like that of the grey species. 
The bird, when surprised, attempted to escape, and rose on the wing, with several 
other birds of the cinereous species ; but the albinism of its plumage, according 
to Chaplin, caused it to be singled out and shot. The bird must have been an 
albino variety of the Grey Heron or a White Egret ; but the elongated crest and 
occipital plumes which Chaplin affirms the example possessed, denote, I conjecture, 
a close affinity to the former species, rather than to the White Egret.” Whilst at 
p. 266 we find ; — “ The albino example of Heron shot by Chaplin on the banks of 
Groby Pool, some few years since, and which he described to me very carefully. 
