140 
ARDEIDtE. 
with the remains of hsh ; as, on I)eo. 14, was another with the 
remains of frogs. — Jan. 26, 1839. One exhibited a mass of con- 
ferva-like vegetable matter, and portions of water-beetles.’^ It 
would thus seem that the food of the heron is often of a much 
smaller description than we are informed of by writers on the 
subject. 
In February 1839 a heron was picked up by a shooter as it 
lay helpless, and nearly dead, on the surface of Belfast bay. The 
cause of this catastrophe was at once apparent, — a large eel 
having been found sticking tightly in its throat ; this fish, 
tweuty-six inches in length, and four and a half inches in circum- 
ference at the vent, was rather a formidable mouthful. Its head 
was partly digested. The bird had probably picked up the eel 
when standing at the edge of the channel ; and being unable to 
take wing, had been lifted by the flowing tide on wliich it was 
seen floating. 
Another instance of the heron^s falling a prey, apparently, to 
its intended victim is recorded in the following note : — Lord 
Castlereagh and the Eev. John Cleland being in company, in the 
neighbourhood of Portaferry, about the year 1785, were attracted 
by the violent screams of a heron rising from a marsh, and 
they paid particular attention to it. The bird kept on wing for a 
short time, and then feU to the ground ; when, on hurrying to 
the spot, they observed a stoat [Mustela erminea) running away ; 
and found the heron dead from a wound which that animal had 
made in its throat.f 
Mr. Yarrell remarks that if an eel chance to be the object 
caught, the heron has been seen to quit the water, to make the 
more sure of his prey by beating it against the ground till it is 
disabled,^^ (vol. ii. p. 446).J This proceeding I have frequently 
* Mr. Poole notes the large water-beetle {Bi/tiscus marginalis) as forming part 
of the heron’s food. , 
t This was communicated by Mr. Cleland to Mr. J. Montgomery of Locust Lodge, 
in Aug. 1822. 
The 3rd vol. ot Yarrell’s British Birds, p.429, contains a note and most spirited 
vignette of a heron being killed by an eel in a dilferent manner from that above 
related. 
