Leaving the Cranes, the family of Herons next presents itself.

FAMILY ARDEIDE, or HERONS.-This extensive family contains many groups, varying from each other in certain details, but all agreeing in general characteristics. They are strictly carnivorous, living on fish, reptiles, and even the smaller mammalia, which frequent the borders of lakes or marshes. Formed essentially for wading, their limbs are long, as is the neck also; but the beak varies considerably, or rather is modified according to the manner in which the food is to be obtained. In most it is long and sharp-pointed. The toes are generally long and slender, so as to cover a wide area, and thus keep the bird from sinking into the oozy mud, and the inner edge of the claw of the middle toe is mostly pectinated. A few of the most remarkable examples, in illustration of the family, may be selected.

First, the BOATBILL, (Cancroma cochlearea, LIN.) The genus Cancroma contains but one species. Its food and general habits certainly place it among the Herons, though its beak at first would seem to imply otherwise; it resembles a boat reversed, having a strong ridge or keel down the middle of the upper mandible, and the sides spread out and bowed, thus:

The nostrils are situated in a furrow along each side of the keel; the point is sharp, and the edges of each

mandible are hard and cutting. The toes are three before, and one behind.

The Boatbill is a native of Guiana, Brazil, and the warmer regions of America, frequenting rivers and lakes, from which it obtains its food.

Patiently keeping watch, upon some branch which stretches over the water beneath, it marks its finny prey as they glide along, and, like the kingfisher, precipitates itself upon them with unerring aim. Of its mode of incubation, or the minuter details of its history, little is known. From the top of the head arises a long crest of jet black feathers, narrow, pointed, and falling down upon the back, producing a most beautiful effect. The throat

is bare; the forehead and neck (of which the feathers are elongated, and form a sort of mane very characteristic of the present family) are grayish white; the back, also ornamented with long silky feathers, is of a delicate gray; the tail is white; the sides are black; the middle of the under surface deep reddish brown; bill blackish; legs brown; claw of middle toe pectinated. In size the bird is somewhat larger than a common duck. It is rare in museums.

The true Herons are contained in the restricted genus Ardea, which includes the bitterns also. We find the bill long, straight, sharp, compressed laterally, with the gape extending below the eyes; the edges of the mandibles are frequently armed with sharp denticulations, and the upper mandible is furrowed by a groove on each side, throughout its whole length, in which, near the base, are situated the nostrils. The space between the eye and the beak is destitute of feathers. The tarsi are long, the legs naked above the joints, the toes long and slender, and the inner edge of the claw of the middle toe is deeply pectinated, or comb-like. The use of this peculiarity, unless it be to enable the bird to hold its slippery prey beneath its feet more firmly while it destroys it, is not made out. The reader will remember, that in a very different group of birds, the Goatsuckers, (Caprimulgus,) it was expressly noticed, as there occurring. It is not a little strange that it should be again met with here, in a race of birds differing most essentially in all their habits and instincts.

To return, however, to the Herons. Their food consists of fish and reptiles, and night is the season of their activity. Their sight is keen; their stroke sudden as thought. Their flight is lofty, their wings being ample, and their body light.

The COMMON HERON (Ardea cinerea) is well known as the desolator of store-ponds, and small sheets of water. It is spread over almost every part of the Old

World, where wood and water favour its wants and habits. In some countries it is migratory, but in England it is a permanent resident. Solitary, shy, and suspicious, the Heron sits, during the day, roosting on his accustomed bough in the densest part of the wood, where the trees are tall; or if no such covert be near, he may be observed, standing on one leg, immoveable as a statue, in the middle of some wide morass, but so situated as to command a view of the prospect around. Ever watchful, his eye detects the intruder while yet at a distance; roused from his wakeful repose, he soars aloft, and wings his course away to some distant and more lonely haunt.

The fishing time of this bird is generally before sunrise, and after sunset, and especially during moonlight. The lover of nature, if at such a time abroad, may see him standing in the water, intent upon his prey; the head drawn back between the shoulders ready for the stroke; the eye glistening with eagerness; but the posture fixed as if immoveable. Sudden as lightning and with unerring aim, arrow-like he launches his beak- —a fish glitters transfixed upon its point.

Sometimes, however, the Heron fishes by day, and may be seen in the shallows of ponds and rivers. Besides fish, water-rats are eagerly seized, killed by a blow, and swallowed whole. During the breeding season the Heron assembles in flocks, and, like the rook, resorts to a permanent settlement, which has served as a nursery for many generations. These breeding stations, or heronries, as they are termed, are always in the loftiest trees which the wood affords; and the nests, which are large flat masses, constructed of sticks, are frequently placed, several close together, on the same tree. Few of these heronries are now in existence, compared with their number in former days, when the killing of one of these birds, except in the lawful way, subjected the offender to fine or imprisonment. Consequently the bird is now by no means so common as it was when strictly preserved for the favourite sport of hawking, in which the nobility alone were per

mitted to join. Its soaring flight, its resolute defence when pressed to the last, (often spearing the falcon in his swoop,) rendered it the most valued of game. Nor was its flesh, though now accounted uneatable, considered inferior to that of the finest wild-fowl.

When taken young, the Heron may be easily tamed; but old birds sullenly refuse food, and soon die. When wounded, it makes a most energetic defence, striking at the eyes of a dog with great violence, or at the hand of the sportsman, and inflicting severe injury.

The young are five or six weeks before they are able to quit the nest, during which time they are plentifully supplied by the parents.

A singular fact is related (see Selby's Ornithology, vol. ii. p. 13,) by P. Neill, Esq. of Canonmills, near Edinburgh, respecting a tame Heron, by which it appears that this bird is not incapable of swimming. This gentleman had a pair of these beautiful birds, and the following is part of his narration:-" 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. His motion through the water is slow, but his carriage is stately. I have seen him fell a rat by one blow on the back of the head, when the rat was munching at his dish of fish."

The head, throat, breast, and under parts are pure white; the sides and back of the neck pale gray; the front of the neck has a double row of oblong spots of black; the long plumes, which depend from the lower part of the neck, are white or tinged with gray; from the back of the head springs a beautiful crest, six or eight inches in length, of a deep black, as are the feathers of the sides and thighs; the feathers of the back are long, loose, and drooping, and of a pale gray; the wings are bluish gray, but the quill-feathers are black; tail gray; bill and eyes yellow; legs olive green. Length three feet three or four inches.