THE HERON, 
137 
are illustrative of habits of tlie species_, which I have not seen 
alluded to in any work. Even in the latest History of British 
Birds — Mr. YarrelFs excellent work — it is remarked that_, in 
winter^ seldom more than one heron is seen at the same time and 
place; the species is also characterized there as gregarious only 
at the breeding season. 
Fishing and Food, 
Different statements have been made respecting the her^n^s 
hshing time. I have somewhere read of its never fisliing by night, 
not even by the clearest moonlight; an idea which would be 
scouted by the old women of the north of Ireland, whose favourite 
prescription for rheumatic pains is “the fat of a heron killed 
at the full of the moon.'’^* That the bird is then in the best 
condition, is not imaginary; it visits Belfast bay in as great 
nmnbers to feed by moonlight as by day, at all seasons of the 
year. It is not known to come in dark nights. Those who kill 
the birds for eating (which some very few poor shooters do) con- 
sider them only in sufficiently good condition after a duration of 
moonlight feeding. ‘ Taxidermists, too, remark them to be fatter 
at such times (occasionally very fat) than when killed during “ the 
dark of the moon.'’^ Montagu, indeed, has correctly observed 
that “ they feed frequently by mooidight, at which time they 
become tolerably fat, being not only less disturbed in the night, 
but it has been observed that fish then come into shoaler waters.” 
I have myself seen numbers of them fishing by moonlight in Bel- 
fast bay ; and one which I shot in the act had just captiued a 
large Coitus scorpius, Linn, (or milleLs thumb, as it is here called), 
notwithstanding its formidable spinous armed head. In another 
instance, in summer, when greater variety of food is afforded, I 
saw one of these fish taken from a heron^s stomach. Bennie 
states that he had never seen an instance of its fishing when 
* Peimaiit makes a similar remark in reference to tlie great crested grebe {Podi- 
ceps cristatiis)y viz. llesli of this bird is excessively rank ; but the fat is 
of great virtue in rlieumatic pains, cramps, and paralytic contractions.” 
