GREAT HERON. 
31 
seeds of that species of nymphas usually called splatter-docks, so 
abundant along our fresh-water ponds and rivers. 
The Heron has great powers of wing, flying sometimes very 
high, and to a great distance ; his neck doubled, his head drawn 
in, and his long legs stretched out in a right line behind him, ap- 
pearing like a tail, and probably serving the same rudder-like 
office. When he leaves the seacoast, and traces on wing the 
courses of the creeks or rivers upwards, he is said to prognosticate 
rain ; when downwards, dry weather. He is most jealously vigi- 
lant 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 destiaiciion 
do not prevail here as in Europe. Our seashores and rivers are 
free to all for the amusement of fishing. Luxury has not yet con- 
structed her thousands of fishponds, and surrounded them with 
steel-traps, spring-guns, and Heron-snares.* In our vast fens, mea- 
dows and sea marshes, this stately bird roams at pleasui-e, feast- 
ing on the never-failing magazines of frogs, fish, seeds and insects 
with which they abound, and of which he probably considers him- 
self the sole lord and proprietor. I have several times seen the 
^ “ 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 water, 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 that 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 destroying 
this mischievous bird is by fishing for him in the manner of pike, with a baited hook. When 
the haunt of the Heron is found out, three orfour 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 other 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 different shallow parts of the 
pond, and in a night or two’s time the Heron will not fail to be taken with one or other of them.” 
