354 
Birds 
THE COMMON HERON. (Ardea cinerea.) 
The habits of the Heron are peculiar. Perched on a 
stone, or the stump of a tree, by the solitary current of 
a brook, his neck and long beak half-buried between his 
shoulders, he will wait the whole day long, patient and 
unmoved, for the passing of a small fish, or the hopping 
of a frog ; but his appetite is insatiable. 
This bird is about four feet long from the tip of the 
bill to the end of the claws ; to the end of the tail about 
thirty-eight inches ; its breadth, when the wings are 
extended, is about five feet. The male is distinguished 
by a crest or tuft of black feathers hanging from the 
hinder part of his head, which in chivalrous times was 
