water fish, water-rats, and water-beetles, may fairly be set
off against its depredations in trout-streams. When the
occasion presents itself it will undoubtedly devour the young
of water-fowl. Mr. Newcome told Mr. H. Stevenson that he
once knew a Heron to swallow a Stoat, but in this case the
prey was promptly disgorged. For another example of “ the
biter bit ” the Author was indebted to the kindness of the
late Eev. W. Alderson, of Ashton, near Sheffield, for the
use of a clever drawing, from which the vignette below was
taken. A Heron was seen one evening going to a piece of
water to feed ; the spot was visited the next morning, when
it was discovered that the Heron had struck its sharp beak
through the head of an eel, piercing both eyes; the eel thus
held had coiled itself so tightly round the neck of the Heron
as to stop the bird’s respiration, and both were dead.
When fishing, the Heron stands motionless in shallow
water, with the head drawn back towards the shoulders,
ready to strike or seize with its sharp beak whatever may
happen to come within its reach. If an eel chance to he
the object caught, the Heron has been seen to quit the water
to make the more sure of the prey, by beating it against
the ground till it was disabled. The alarm-note is a loud
‘frank, frank,’ which never fails to disturb any water-fowl in
the vicinity; but at the nest it is a prolonged ‘ kronk ’ or
‘ kraak.’
Selby states that a pair of Herons, kept by Hr. Neill in
his garden at Canonmills, near Edinburgh, produced two
sets of eggs ; during incubation the male frequently took his
place on the nest when the female went off to feed, but
unfortunately both the female and the eggs were destroyed
by accident. Dr. Neill adds, “ A large old willow-tree had
fallen down into the pond, and at the extremity, which is
partly sunk in the sludge, and continues to vegetate, Water
Hens breed. The old cock Heron swims out to the nest,
and takes the young if he can. He has to swim ten or
twelve feet, where the water is between two and three feet
deep. I have seen him fell a rat at one blow on the back of
the head, when the rat was munching at his dish of fish.”
The Heron was formerly esteemed as an article of food, and
Mr. Gurney states that the young are excellent eating just
before they leave the nest. Up to that time their diet consists
almost exclusively of fish, the taste for fur and feather
being acquired later. According to Folkard, the price of a
Heron in the time of Edward I. was from sixteen to eighteen-
pence : higher than that of any other wildfowl; but by the
reign of Elizabeth the bird had fallen in favour, although
still held in some repute.
The Heron appears to be a long-lived species, and,
amongst other instances, Mr. H. Stevenson quotes a statement
in ‘ The Annual Register’ for 1767 (p. 107), under
date of July 7tli, recording the capture by the Prince Stadt-
holder of Holland, of a bird with a brass inscription round
its leg, setting forth that it had been taken and released by
the Elector of Cologne in 1737. Dr. L. Companyo records
the capture of an adult near Perpignan, in the extreme
south-east of France, in April 1845, bearing the badge of
the Hawking Club of Loo, in Holland, dated 1843 ; another,
which had carried the inscription seven years, was killed
there in 1856; and Colonel Hamilton states that one was
VOL. IV. z