GREAT HERON. 
29 
of the creeks or rivers upwards, he is said to prognosticate 
rain; when downwards, dry weather. He is most 
jealously 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 proprietor. 
I have several times seen the bald eagle attack and 
tease the great heron ; but whether for sport, or to 
make him disgorge his fish, I am uncertain. 
The common heron of Europe (ardea major) very 
much resembles the present, which might, as usual, 
* u The heron,” says an English writer, ee 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 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 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.” 
