sparrow-hawk. It was once the amusement of the great to pursue this timorous creature with the falcon; and heron hawking was so favourite a diversion among our ancestors, that laws were enacted for the preservation of the species; and the person who destroyed their eggs was liable to a penalty of twenty shillings for each offence.

At present, however, the defects of the ill-judged policy of our ancestors is felt by their posterity; for, as the amusement of hawking has given place to the more useful method of stocking fish-ponds, the heron is now become a most formidable enemy. Of all other birds, this commits the greatest devastation in fresh waters; and there is scarcely a fish, though never so large, that he will not strike at and wound, though unable to carry it away. But the smaller fry are his chief subsistence: these, pursued by their larger fellows of the deep, are obliged to take refuge in shallow waters, where they find the heron a still more formidable enemy. His method is to wade as far as he can go into the water, and there patiently wait the approach of his prey, which when it comes within sight, he darts upon with inevitable aim. In this manner he is found to destroy more in a week than an otter in three months. "I have seen a heron,” says Willoughby, "that had been shot, that had seventeen carps in his belly at once, which he will digest in six or seven hours, and then to fishing again. I have seen a carp," continues he, "taken out of a heron's belly, nine inches and a half long. Several gentlemen who kept tame herons, to try what quantity one of them would eat in a day, have put several smaller roach and dace in a tub; and they have found him eat fifty in a day, one day with another. In this manner a single heron will destroy fifteen thousand carp in one half-year.

So great are the digestive powers of this fresh

water tyrant, and so detrimental to those who stock ponds with fish. In general, he is seen taking his gloomy stand by the lake side, as if meditating mischief, motionless and gorged with plunder. His usual attitude on this occasion is to sink his long neck between his shoulders, and keep his head turned on one side, as if eyeing the pool more intently. When the call of hunger returns, the toil of an hour or two is generally sufficient to fill his capacious stomach; and he retires long before night to his retreat in the woods. Early in the morning, however, he . is seen assiduous at his usual occupation.

But though in seasons of fine weather the heron can always find a plentiful supply, in cold or stormy seasons his prey is no longer within reach: the fish that before came into the shallow water now keep in the deep, as they find it to be the warmest situation. Frogs and lizards also seldom venture from their lurking-places; and the heron is obliged to support himself upon his long habits of patience, and even to take up with the weeds that grow upon the water. At those times he contracts a consumptive disposition, which succeeding plenty is not able to remove; so that the meagre glutton spends his time between want and riot, and feels alternately the extremes of famine and excess. Hence, notwithstanding the care with which he takes his prey, and the amazing quantity he devours, the heron is always lean and emaciated; and though his crop be usually found full, yet his flesh is scarcely sufficient to cover the bones.

The heron usually takes his prey by wading into the water, yet it must not be supposed that he does not also take it upon the wing. In fact, much of his fishing is performed in this manner; but he never hovers over deep waters, as there his prey is enabled to escape him by sinking to the bottom. In shallow

places he darts with more certainty; for though the fish at sight of its enemy instantly descends, yet the heron, with his long bill and legs, instantly pins it to the bottom, and thus seizes it securely. In this manner, after having been seen with his long neck for above a minute under water, he rises upon the wing, with a trout or an eel struggling in his bill to get free. The greedy bird, however, flies to the shore, scarcely gives it time to expire, but swallows it whole, and then returns to fishing as before.

As this bird does incredible mischief to ponds newly stocked, Willoughby has given a receipt for taking it. "Having found his haunt, get three or four small roach or dace, and having provided a strong hook with a wire to it, this is drawn just within-side the skin of the fish, beginning without-side the gills, and running it to the tail, by which the fish will not be killed, but continue for five or six days alive. Then having a strong line made of silk and wire, about two yards and a half long, it is tied to a stone at one end, the fish with the hook being suffered to swim about at the other. This being properly disposed in shallow water, the heron will seize upon the fish to its own destruction. From this method we may learn that the fish must be alive, otherwise the heron will not touch them; and that this bird, as well as all those that feed upon fish, must be its own caterer; for they will not prey upon such as die naturally, or are killed by others before them."

Though this bird lives chiefly among pools and marshes, yet its nest is built on the tops of the highest trees, and sometimes on cliffs hanging over the sea. They are never in flocks when they fish, committing their depredations in solitude and silence; but in making their nests they love each other's society, and they are seen, like rooks, building in com

pany with flocks of their kind. Their nests are made of sticks, and lined with wool, and the female lays four large eggs, of a pale green colour. The observable indolence of their nature, however, is not less -seen in their nestling than in their habits of depredation. Nothing is more certain, and I have seen it a hundred times, than that they will not be at the trouble of building a nest when they can get one made by the rook, or deserted by the owl, already provided for them. This they usually enlarge and line within, driving off the original possessors, should they happen to renew their fruitless claims.

The French seem to have availed themselves of the indolence of this bird in making its nest, and they actually provide a place with materials fitted for their nestling, which they call Heronries. The heron, which with us is totally unfit for the table, is more sought for in France, where the flesh of the young ones is in particular estimation. To obtain this, the natives raise up high sheds along some fishy stream; and furnishing them with materials for the herons to nestle with, these birds build and breed there in great abundance. As soon as the young ones are supposed to be fit, the owner of the heronry comes, as we do into a pigeon-house, and carries off such as are proper for eating; and these are sold for a very good price to the neighbouring gentry. "These are a delicacy which," as my author says, "the French are very fond of, but which strangers have not yet been taught to relish as they ought." Nevertheless it was formerly much esteemed as food in England, and made a favourite dish at great tables. It was then said that the flesh of a heron was a dish for a king; at present, nothing about the house will touch it but a cat.

With us, therefore, as the heron, both old and young, is thought detestable eating, we seldom trou

ble these animals in their heights, which are for the most part sufficiently inaccessible. Their nests are often found in great numbers in the middle of large forests, and in some groves nearer home, where the owners have a predilection for the bird, and do not choose to drive it from its accustomed habitations. It is certain that by their cries, their expansive wings, their bulk, and wavy motion, they add no small solemnity to the forest, and give a pleasing variety to a finished improvement.

When the young are excluded, as they are numerous, voracious, and importunate, the old ones are for ever upon the wing to provide them with abundance. The quantity of fish they take upon this occasion is amazing, and their size is not less to be wondered at. I remember a heron's nest that was built near a school-house; the boys, with their usual appetite for mischief, climbed up, took down the young ones, sowed up their vents, and laid them in the nest as before. The pain the poor little animals felt from the operation, increased their cries; and this but served to increase the diligence of the old ones in enlarging their supply. Thus they heaped the nest with various sorts of fish, and the best of their kind; and as their young screamed, they flew off for more. The boys gathered up the fish, which the young ones were incapable of eating, till the old ones at last quitted their nest, and gave up their brood, whose appetites they found it impossible to satisfy.

The heron is said to be a very long-lived bird; by Mr. Keysler's account, it may exceed sixty years; and by a recent instance of one that was taken in Holland, by a hawk belonging to the Stadtholder, its longevity is again confirmed, the bird having a silver plate fastened to one leg, with an inscription, importing that it had been struck by the elector of Cologne's hawks, thirty-five years before.