THE HERON. 
187 
Heron, the wires whicli support the legs are usually so placed 
that the so-called knees are widely apart ; in this individual, 
however, those parts were so close together as sometimes to meet, 
thus causing a very unpleasing “knock-kneed” appearance. 
Another mistake upon the part of the bird-stuffer is to place 
the eyes quite flat in the head ; on looking from above upon 
the head of a living bird, it will be seen that they project con- 
siderably posteriorly, so as to look forwards. 
Almost every one who has seen a recently-killed Heron, must 
have observed upon the bill and legs a peculiar bluish powder, 
resembling the “bloom” upon a plum. Hot long ago I read some- 
where that this was a luminous substance secreted for the pur- 
pose of attracting fish at night ! Delighted with the idea, I at 
first hung up dead Herons in dark cupboards, but, unfortunately 
for the above ingenious theory, the cupboards remained as dark 
as before ; and even when, thinking that this was in consequence 
of the birds being dead, I visited my short-lived captive under 
the trees one dark night, so far from beholding “a faint glim- 
mering as of subdued moonbeams,” so eloquently described by 
the author alluded to, I with difficulty made out a shapeless 
black lump. The powder is not found upon the bill and legs 
alone ; the whole plumage is filled with it, so that it comes off 
upon one’s clothes; and when the bird falls into calm water, a 
large quantity of bluish dust immediately spreads around upon 
the surface. I often rubbed it from the legs and bill, and those 
parts remained free from it as long as they were kept from contact 
with the plumage. As to the pectinated middle claw I can say 
but little. That claw alone was used in scratching the head 
and neck, a process which was repeated very frequently ; but 
again, unfortunately for theory, it must be observed that barn- 
door fowls have precisely the same habit. Possibly these 
notes contain nothing new, but I have nothing better to offer, 
the poor Heron having wandered one dark night into the garden 
well, from which the stepping board had been thoughtlessly 
removed by a servant. Unhappily for my purposes of gaining 
some information as to the changes of plumage and the times 
