1130 
AEDEA CINEEEA. 
shy and keeps well out in the water, when it is shallow enough to wade at a distance from the shore. When 
looking for fish it stalks along with slow and stealthy tread, generally going in one direction ; the neck is 
stretched out and carried at an angle of about 45°, and the bill held pointed down at right angles to the neck ; 
occasionally I have seen it wading in water up to the body, and with its neck held stiffly out, giving an 
awkward appearance to the bird. In tidal rivers it usually walks down stream, looking out for fish coming 
up with the tide ; but at the sides of pools and ponds it stands motionless, keenly eyeing the water, with neck 
drawn in, until a fish is espied, when it darts on it with the utmost rapidity and an unerring aim. Quantities 
of fish are consumed by Herons, its great partiality being for eels in countries where these abound ; but their 
diet is by no means confined to fish, for, in the winter especially, they frequent the rocks on the sea-shore, 
and feed on shrimps, crabs, and shell-fish. Water-rats and mice are not unfrequently captured, and bolted 
head foremost ; and in attempting this the Heron sometimes loses its life. Of late years two instances have 
come under my notice in which birds have been choked in attempting to swallow a rat too large for the throat. 
In one case a very large rat had been swallowed, and a second was found with its hind quarters hanging from 
the gape, and the shoulders firmly jammed into the throat. This species will sometimes pounce on a dead bird, 
as I am informed by a gentleman in Wales, in whose grounds a large Heronry is situated, that he once shot 
at a Jack-Snipe, which flew some distance and then fell, when it was no sooner snapped up by a Heron which 
had been flushed by the shot and was flying past where the Snipe dropped. The Heron feeds a good deal 
by night, frequenting streams flowing through marshes on moonlight nights. 
The flight of the Heron is slow, being performed with heavy flaps of the wings ; the neck is drawn quite 
in and the feet extended, the legs brought close together, and sometimes the feet are crossed ; and just before 
alighting, as I observed when standing in a heronry and looking up at the birds, the hind toe is stretched out as 
if to get ready to perch on the first branch to hand. The ordinary note of the Heron is a loud kraak repeated 
at intervals ; but while breeding its voice is varied. A pair, on alighting on different trees, call to one another 
with a deep-sounding note like kronk-kronk, and when sitting down on their nests one hears a low contented 
sort of call — krak, krak, krak, quickly repeated. It is remarkable how well Herons hold with their feet to 
a small branch ; they are capable of alighting on mere twigs, and keep themselves balanced by flapping the 
wings. In India, as in Europe, the Heron has always been a favourite quarry for the Falcon, and is said 
sometimes to inflict severe wounds on its captor with its powerful beak; but, as is remarked by Jerdon (an 
extract from whose article I have given at p. 104 of this work), it is considered in India quite erroneous that 
the Heron ever transfixes a Falcon with its bill. 
In parts of India this Heron is kept for decoy purposes, as also for food, its flesh being esteemed by the 
natives. Mr. Hume thus writes of it as observed in Sindh : — “About every fisherman's village hundreds may 
be seen perched about on the boats, or stacks of brushwood thrown into the water, and on poles, perfectly 
motionless, and more like stuffed than living birds. The eyelids of all are sewn up; they dare not move, poor 
things, and wherever they are placed for the day, there they remain immovable. Generally they are lightly 
tethered by one leg ; but I saw several, perhaps old prisoners, in no way tied. Now and again they run their 
bills along their feathers, or flap their wings feebly ; but, as a rule, they stand like statues. The people feed 
them liberally, and say they grow very fat in confinement, and obviously appreciate them as much as an 
article of diet as our ancestors appear to have done. Sometimes these birds get loose in this way, or being 
loose, take it into their heads to fly. I myself saw one go off in this way, and then it mounted in short circles 
straight up into the sky until we entirely lost sight of it ; and this, the boatman assured me, was what invariably 
happened in similar cases. What eventually comes of these no one seems to know ; of course they must 
ultimately drop exhausted to the ground, but probably at great distances from where they started, for the 
fishermen say that never, by any chance, do they again see a bird that thus escapes.” 
Nidification . — The nesting-season of the Heron in Ceylon varies between November and March, in which 
latter month it commences to lay in England. In the eastern and northern divisions of the island, wherever 
there is a large breeding-colony of Pelicans, Comorants, Egrets, or Ibises, one is sure to find a few pairs of 
Herons nesting. They breed at Uduwila and other places in the south, near Trineomalie, Kokelai, and 
Mullaittivu, and in the Kurunegala district at Nikaweratiya. Besides these situations known to me, there must 
be many other spots in the northern half of the island. I have found the nests in low trees growing in the 
