About the Book
Excerpt from The Royal Natural History, Vol. 4: Section VIII Water of every kind, from the sea-marge to the mountain-stream, forms the favourite haunt and hunting-ground of the herons; and there the common Species may be seen standing alone and silent, knee-deep in the flood, watching patiently for a passing fish, with its head drawn back and ready to strike With unerring aim at a moment's notice. Although the chief food of these birds consists of fish, all kinds of water-animals, not too large for their capacities, are captured easily, among them being frogs, snakes, water-voles, young water-fowl, crustaceans, insects, and worms. The usual time for fishing is early in the morning and late in the evening, while on moonlight nights the business is con tinned till a later hour. In Spite of its extreme voraciousness, the heron is not considered a wholly unwelcome visitor to trout-streams, on account of the number of voles and coarse fish it destroys. Mostly solitary during the winter, the common heron assembles together in the early spring for nesting in large numbers; the heronry being generally situated in tall trees, and occupied for generation after generation. Heronries, like the well-known one at Cressy Hall near Spalding, have been so often described, that it will be unnecessary to repeat the details here. It may be observed, however, that the nest, which is of large size, and relatively flat and wide, is formed of sticks and lined with twigs, fibres, and grass and that the three or four eggs are bluish green in colour. While the hen is sitting, the male bird takes his stand during his hours of rest on a branch hard by, where he may be seen maintaining his position in the face of a gale. Both parents take a part in feeding the young, and after the first breed is able to take care of itself a second clutch of eggs is laid. In English heronries the nests are commonly built in oaks, elms, or wych-elms, but in Kashmir the magnificent chunars or plane trees are the favourite breeding resorts of these birds. Occasionally the nests are built on rocky cliffs overgrown with ivy or low shrubs. The alarm-cry of the heron is the well-known hoarse crank, crank, but in the breeding-season the note is more prolonged. In Sind, where the common heron is very numerous, it is employed by the natives as a decoy-bird for other water-fowl. About every fisherman's village, writes Mr. Hume, hundreds may be seen perched about on the boats, on stacks of brushwood thrown into the water, and on poles, perfectly motionless, and more like stuffed than living birds. The eyelids of all are sewn up; they dare not move, poor things, and, wherever they are placed for the day, there they remain immovable. Generally they are lightly tethered by one leg, but I saw several, perhaps old prisoners, in no way tied. Occasionally, a bird gets loose and flies skywards in the usual circling manner, and in such cases they are never known to return, but wander forth to perish miserably from hunger. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
