60 
GKEAT HERON. 
appearing like a tail, and probably serving the same rudder-like 
office. When he leaves the sea coast, and traces on wing tlie 
courses of the creeks or rivers upwards, he is said to prognos- 
ticate rain; when downwards, dry weather. He is most jealous- 
ly vigilant and watchful of man, so that those who wish to 
succeed in shooting the Heron, must approach him entirely 
unseen, and by stratagem. The same inducements, however, 
for his destruction do not prevail here as in Europe. Our sea 
shores and rivers are free to all for the amusement of fishing. 
Luxury has not yet constructed her thousands of fish ponds, and 
surrounded them with steel traps, spring guns, and Heron 
snares. * In our vast fens, meadows and sea marshes, this stately 
bird roams at pleasure, feasting on the never-failing magazines 
of frogs, fish, seeds and insects with which they abound, and 
of which he probably considers himself the sole lord and proprie- 
tor. I have several times seen the Bald Eagle attack and tease 
the Great Heron; but whether for sport, or to make him dis- 
gorge his fish, I am uncertain. 
The common Heron of Europe [Jirdea major) very much 
resembles the present, which might, as usual, have probably 
been ranked as the original stock, of which the present was a 
* “ The Heron,” says an English writer, “ is a very great devourer of fish, 
and does more mischief in a pond than an otter. People who have kept Herons 
have had the curiosity to number the fish they feed them with, into a tub of wa- 
ter, and counting them again afterwards, it has been found that they will eat up 
fifty moderate dace and roaches in a day. It has been found (hat in carp ponds 
visited by this bird, one Heron will eat up a thousand store carp in a year; and 
will hunt them so close as to let very few escape. The readiest method of de- 
stroying this mischievous bird is by fishing for him in the manner of pike, with 
a baited hook AVhen the haunt of the Heron is found out, three or four small 
roach, or dace, are to be procured, and each of them is to be baited on a wire, 
with a strong hook at the end, entering the wire just at the gills, and letting it 
run just under the skin to the tail; the fish will live in this manner for five or six 
days, which is a very essential thing: for if it be dead, the Heron will not touch 
it. A strong line is then to be prepared of silk and wire twisted together, and is 
to be about two yards long; tie this to the wire that holds the hook, and to the 
othei 'end of it there is to be tied a stone of about a pound weight; let three or 
four of these baits be sunk in dilferent shallow parts of the pond, and in a night 
ortw'o’s time the Heron will not fail to be taken with one or other of them.” 
