528 
HERON. 
young brood perished by the fall of the timber. 
The parent birds immediately set about preparing 
new habitations, in order to breed again ; but as 
the trees in the neighbourhood of their old nests 
were only of a late growth, and not sufficiently 
high to screen them from the depredations of boys, 
they determined to effect a settlement in the 
rookery. The rooks made an obstinate resistance ; 
but after a very violent contest, in the course of 
which many of the rooks and some of their antago- 
nists lost their lives, the herons at last succeeded in 
their attempt, built their nests, and brought up their 
young. 
“ The next season the same contest took place, 
which terminated like the former, by the victory 
of the herons : since that time peace seems to 
have been agreed upon between them ; the rooks 
have relinquished that part of the grove which the 
herons occupy ; the herons confine themselves to 
those trees they first seized upon ; and the two spe- 
cies live together in as much harmony as they did 
before the quarrel.” 
As the young when hatched are very voracious 
and importunate, the parents are obliged to be 
doubly assiduous to provide them with food ; and 
the quantity of fish taken to supply a hernery at 
this season is amazing. The young are at first co- 
vered, for a considerable time, with a thick hairy 
down, chiefly on the head and neck. 
Heron-hawking was once such a favourite di- 
version, that Pennant informs us laws were enacted 
