is not only fish, frogs, and Insects that the Heron takes ; for a water-rat or the chick of a Moorhen or Rail 
will not come across him twice. Mr. Henry Shaw, of Shrewshury, tells me that he once took a fully 
fledged Moorhen from the gullet of a Heron ; and, from the enormous dilatability of that part of the bird’s 
structure, I can well believe it. 
As spring advances, the beautiful occipital plumes common to both sexes, but finest in the male, are 
assumed ; and the entire plumage becomes finer than in winter. The young of the first autumn differ 
greatly from the adults, being clothed in a dingy grey dress, without any lengthened feathers on the breast 
or occipital plumes. It is at this age that it is best for the table : for a history of the bird would be 
incomplete without an allusion to its being an oiseau de luxe” of our continental neighbours ; and to the 
excellence of its flesh, when the bird is young and in good condition, I can myself bear testimony. 
Macgillivray bas given so graphic a description of the places of resort and the habits of the Heron, as 
seen in the North, that I must be excused for reproducing it here. 
“The cold blasts of the north sweep along the ruffled surface of the lake, over whose deep waters frown 
the rugged crags of rusty gneiss, having their crevices sprinkled with tufts of withered herbage, and their 
summits crowned with stunted birches and alders. The desolate hills around are partially covered with 
snow ; the pastures are drenched with the rains ; the brown torrents seam the heathy slopes ; and the little 
birds have long ceased to enliven those deserted thickets with their gentle songs. Margining the waters 
extends a long muddy beach, over which are scattered blocks of stone, partially clothed with dusky and 
olivaceous weeds. Here and there a Gull floats buoyantly in the shallows ; some Oyster-catchers repose on 
a gravel-bank, their bills buried among their plumage ; and there, on that low shelf, is perched a solitary 
Heron, like a monument of listless indolence — a bird petrified in its slumber. At another time, when the 
tide has retired, you may find it wandering with slow and careful tread among the little pools and by the 
sides of the rocks in search of fishes and crabs ; but, unless you are bent on watching it, you will find more 
amusement in observing the lively Tringas and Turnstones, ever in rapid motion ; for the Heron is, or seems 
to be, a dull and lazy bird ; and even if you draw near, he rises in so listless a manner that you think it must 
be a hard task for him to unfold his large wings and heavily beat tbe air until he has fairly raised himself ; 
but now he floats away lightly, though with slow flappings, screams his harsh cry, and flies to some distant 
place, where he may remain unmolested. 
“ About tbe middle of March numerous individuals assemble in certain places, and soon after resort to 
their breeding-stations, which are not in the rushy marshes or on unfrequented islands, but on tall trees, 
sometimes in large woods, but more frequently in places near some old family mansion. The nests, which 
are very large, nearly flat, and constructed of sticks, with a lining of grass, wool, and similar materials, are 
sometimes crowded together in great numbers, generally on the highest trees, but occasionally on those 
which would seem not well selected for security, or even on an isolated tree of no great height. The eggs 
are light bluish green, broadly elliptical, or having both ends nearly equally rounded, 2i inches in length, by 
1 h inch in breadth. Incubation continues about twenty days ; and the young, at first sparsely covered with 
tufts of down, remain about six weeks in the nest. Mr. Yarrell states that sometimes Herons build on 
])recl])itous rocks near the coast, as at South Stack Lighthouse, near Holyhead, and at Great Orme’s Head ; 
they are said also to build occasionally on the ground, among reeds and rushes.” 
Mr. Yarrell has given a lengthened list of the heronries still existing in England, but has omitted to 
mention that belonging to Sir George Musgrave, Bart., at Eden Hall, in Cumberland, which his son, R. C. 
Musgrave, Esq., informs me is one of the largest, as it comprises nearly two hundred Herons. 
The front bird in the accompanying Plate is about half the size of life ; the young are represented in the 
state in which they appear when two or three days old, and are figured from examples kindly sent to me by 
Mr, W. A. Tyssen Amhurst, of Didlington Park, Norfolk. 
