THE GREAT HERON. 
115 
line behind him, appearing like a tail, and, probably, serving 
the same rudder-like office. When he leaves the sea-coast, 
and traces, on wing, the courses of the creeks or rivers up- 
wards, 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 strata- 
gem. 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 very much resembles the 
present, which might, as usual, have probably been ranked 
as the original stock, of which the present was a mere 
degenerated species, were it not that the American is greatly 
superior, in size and weight, to the European species ; the 
former measuring four feet four inches, and weighing up- 
wards of seven pounds ; the latter, three feet three inches, 
and rarely weighing more than four pounds. Yet, with the 
