Heron

“ Lazy and indifferent, shaking space easily from his wings, knowing his way, the heron passes over the church beneath the sky. White and distant, absorbed in itself, endlessly the sky covers and uncovers, moves and remains. ”

“ THE heron, or common or grey heron, as it is frequently called in order to distinguish it from its relatives, has fortunately not shared the fate of the bittern, and is still more or less common in many parts of Great Britain, where it may be seen at all hours of the day standing mid-leg deep in some stream patiently awaiting the next passing fish. ”

“ The cuckoo's and the dove's nests are fine pieces of architecture compared with a heron's. Is it not a wonder that the helpless heron babies do not tumble through the loose twigs? When they are old enough to climb around their latticed nursery, they still make no attempt to leave it, and several more weeks must pass before they attempt to fly. If there is an ancient heronry in your neighbourhood, as there is in mine, don't attempt to visit the untidy, ill-smelling place on a hot day. ”

“ I have never seen a heron, only pictures of them.'
'They and the rooks are always at war, which does not do for such near neighbours. If both herons leave the nest they are building, the rooks come and tear it to pieces; and once Roger showed me a long straggling fellow of a heron, with a flight of rooks after him, with no friendly purpose in their minds, I'll be bound. Roger knows a deal of natural history, and finds out queer things sometimes. ”

“ Heron. He remained in the monastery for some months: first ill of a fever on the brain, then, after his recovery, as a teacher to our young pupils. When he grew stronger he became tired of our peaceful life; he left the monastery and wandered from place to place in Italy. But he had no money: he began to think of work. He was learned: he could teach: he thought that he might be a tutor. Shall I go on?"
"Good God!" said Percival, below his breath. He had actually turned pale, and was biting his moustache savagely. "Go on, sir!" he thundered, looking at Dino from beneath his knitted brows. ”

“ But Basil Heron answered only with a groan, yet not a tear escaped him. His grief and horror seemed too deep for even tears; every man of the Queen's Own there, felt that he could face death or anything to rescue her and make him happy; but too probably only unavailing vengeance was left to us! However, we had no time for much reflection. We took up our quarters in the Residency, all that were left of us, resolved, if attacked, to sell our lives as dearly as possible. ”

“ A beast may scare one heron, coming upon it suddenly, but no beast will scare a whole flock of herons. And still they flew and circled, and would not light. So then I knew that what scared the herons must be men, and men who knew not our ways of going softly so as to take the birds and beasts unawares. ”

“ But he came upon us—”
“Single-handed, you cowards?”
“Sir, he is not a man, but a witch or a devil. He asked us what we did there. One of our men laughed at his long neck and legs, and called him heron. ‘Heron I am,’ says he, ‘and strike like a heron, right at the eyes’; and with that he cuts the man over the face with his axe, and laid him dead, and then another, and another.’
“Till you all ran away, villains!” ”

“ The reason for this disuse of the Heron as food is not that it is unfit for the table, but that it has become so scarce by the spread of cultivation and house-building, that it has been gradually abandoned as a practically unattainable article of diet. The flesh of the Heron, like that of the bittern, is remarkably excellent, and in the former days, when it was comparatively plentiful, and falconry was the ordinary amusement of the rich, the Heron formed a very important dish at every great banquet. ”

“ Ah, as in the case of a heron and its mate with their young ones flying in the air in search of food, if the heron be killed by a fowler, the mate with her young ones falls into great danger, so shall my mother be when she hears of your being put to death, while hung above ground by a rope. ”

“ White Heron.
“What is the good of saying that?” asked the Tui, “I shan’t imitate you anymore. It is not likely the caterpillars, if they heard you, would stop to be eaten to please you. I’m off to the bush, near the stream,” continued the Tui, “where the white heron [13] is bringing up her aristocratic family in her nest in the tree-fern, I shall get some conversation worth listening to with her, for she’s a lady of education, and does not mix with every one!” and the Tui flew off.
[26]
“I say, old fellow,” called out Hal to the owl, “that was rather hard on you. ”

“ The tenacity of life exhibited by the heron is something wonderful: though shot in the head, and hung up as dead, a heron will sometimes raise his neck several hours afterwards. To wring the neck is impossible—it is like leather or a strong spiral spring: you cannot break it, so that the only way to put the creature out of pain is to cut the artery; and even then there are signs of muscular contraction for some time. A labourer once asked me for a heron that I had shot ”

“ Two herons built their nests under one of the ornaments on the roof of a temple at Tientsin. The accumulated dust of years in the shrine below concealed a huge serpent, having the diameter of a washing-basin; and whenever the heron’s young were ready to fly, the reptile proceeded to the nest and swallowed every one of them, to the great distress of the bereaved parents. ”

“ Snype, or snyte, byrde, Ibex. P. P. A snipe or snite: a bird lesse than a woodcocke. Gallinago minor, &c. Baret.
84. A small Heron or kind of Heron; Shakspere’s editors’ handsaw. The spelling heronshaw misled Cotgrave, &c.; he has Haironniere. A herons neast, or ayrie; a herne-shaw or shaw of wood, wherein herons breed. ‘An Hearne. Ardea. A hearnsew, Ardeola.’ Baret, 1580. ‘Fr. heronceau, a young heron, gives E. heronshaw,’ Wedgwood. I cannot find heronceau, only heronneau. ‘A yong herensew is lyghter of dygestyon than a crane. A. Borde. ”

“ Drifting meadow of the air, Where bloom the daisied banks and violets, And in whose fenny labyrinth The bittern booms and heron wades; Spirit of lakes and seas and rivers, Bear only perfumes and the scent Of healing herbs to just men’s fields! ”

“ Of herons, I saw, and shot, the large white heron (as on the Meinam) , singly and in flocks, on the sand-banks; the common heron, generally stalking singly on the sand-spits, and hard to get near; the purple, of which I saw two couples in the lowlands: the little black-billed white heron, in flocks on the flat by the paddy fields; the cattle egret, walking about with the buffaloes, or perched on their backs ”

“ For so day bids farewell even to solitary vales uninhabited by man. Two herons, Ardea herodias, with their long and slender limbs relieved against the sky, were seen travelling high over our heads,—their lofty and silent flight, as they were wending their way at evening, surely not to alight in any marsh on the earth’s surface, but, perchance, on the other side of our atmosphere, a symbol for the ages to study, whether impressed upon the sky, or sculptured amid the hieroglyphics of Egypt. ”

“ If the effort was too great one of them killed you. Then you went to the shadowy caves. There was a paradise, too, beautiful and easy. But the Great Spirit could not be hurt and had no wish to hurt any one else, whether zemes or men. To live with the Great Spirit, that was really the Heron wish, though the little herons could not always see it.
This butio—Guarin his name—was a young man with eyes that could burn and voice that fell naturally into a chant. He took me into the forest with him to look for a very rare tree. ”

“ Silent are all the sounds of day;
Nothing I hear but the chirp of crickets,
And the cry of the herons winging their way
O'er the poet's house in the Elmwood thickets.
Call to him, herons, as slowly you pass
To your roosts in the haunts of the exiled thrushes,
Sing him the song of the green morass;
And the tides that water the reeds and rushes.
Sing him the mystical Song of the Hern,
And the secret that baffles our utmost seeking;
For only a sound of lament we discern,
And cannot interpret the words you are speaking. ”

“ A well-stocked heronry in an open country is necessary for this sport. The herons go out in the morning to rivers and ponds at a very considerable distance, in search of food, and return to the heronry towards the evening. ”

“ Nest of Common Sandpiper with four eggs, 110; of Social Spider, figured, 253; of Anthodiæta collaris, 418; of Cinnyris gutturalis and C. chalybæus, 418; of Heron made of wire, 484
Nesting of Hobby in Hants, 24, 83, 125; site, abnormal, of Kestrel, 110; early, of House Sparrow, 123; of Nightingale at Wells, Somerset, 317; of Greater Spotted Woodpecker near Bath, 318,—at Wells, Somerset, 319; notes from Yorkshire, 349; of Spotted Flycatcher, 358; site, peculiar, of Swallow v. Flycatcher, 429; of Nuthatch, 480; sites, irregular, 480; late, of Corn Bunting, 485 ”

“ HIERO. Now, sir, perhaps I come to see the king,
The king sees me, and fain would hear my suit:
Why, is this not a strange and seld-seen thing
That standers-by with toys should strike me mute?
Go to, I see their shifts, and say no more;
Hieronimo, 'tis time for thee to trudge!
Down by the dale that flows with purple gore
Standeth a fiery tower; there sits a judge
Upon a seat of steel and molten brass,
And 'twixt his teeth he holds a fire-brand,
That leads unto the lake where he doth stand.
Away, Hieronimo; to him be gone:
He'll do thee justice for Horatio's death. ”

“ Then shall I Herod live in lede
And all folk me doubt and drede,
And offer to me both gold, riches and meed;
Thereto will they be full fain.
First Miles. My lord king, Herod by name,
Thy words against my will shall be;
To see so many young children die is shame,
Therefore counsel thereto gettest thou none of me.
Second Miles. Well said, fellow, my truth I plight.
Sir King, perceive right well you may,
So great a murder to see of young fruit
Will make a rising in thine own country.
Herod. A rising? Out! out! out!
[There Herod rages again and then saith thus:]
Out! ”

“ HIERO. In Paris? mass, and well remembered!—
There's one thing more that rests for us to do.
BAL. What's that, Hieronimo?
Forget not anything.
HIERO. Each one of us
Must act his part in unknown languages,
That it may breed the more variety:
As you, my lord, in Latin, I in Greek,
You in Italian, and, for-because I know
That Bel-imperia hath practised the French,
In courtly French shall all her phrases be.
BEL. You mean to try my cunning then, Hieronimo!
BAL. But this will be a mere confusion,
And hardly shall we all be understood.
HEIRO. It must be so ”

“ Herod. Why, Fawn, why?
Herc. ’Fore heaven! you are blest with three rare graces—fine linen, clean linings, a sanguine complexion, and I am sure, an excellent wit, for you are a gentleman born. 60
Herod. Thank thee, sweet Fawn; but why is clean linen such a grace, I prithee?
Herc. O, my excellent and inward dearly-approved friend! What’s your name, sir? Clean linen is the first our life craves, and the last our death enjoys.
Herod. But what hope rests for Nymphadoro? Thou art now within the buttons of the prince. Shall the duke his father marry the lady?
Herc. ’Tis to be hoped not. ”

“ He says that Herod at this time wore a robe of cloth of silver, so richly woven, and framed with such art, that when the sun shone it reflected the light with such a lustre as dazzled the eyes of the spectators, and struck an awe upon them. Foolish people value men by their outward appearance; and no better are those who value themselves by the esteem of such, who court it, and recommend themselves to it as Herod did, who thought to make up the want of a royal heart with his royal apparel; and sat upon his throne, as if that gave him a privilege to trample upon all about him as his footstool. ”

“ These women have thrown every Herod from his throne. If I had my will, I’d weight their feet with stones and throw them over the precipice in the Dead Sea; and I’d see these Nazarenes feed the lions as they fed the wild beasts in Nero’s days. ”

“ Such was Herod the Great—a body broken by diseases, a conscience seared with crimes, a mind magnificently capable, a soul fit for brotherhood with the Cæsars; now seven-and-sixty years old, but guarding his throne with a jealousy never so vigilant, a power never so despotic, and a cruelty never so inexorable. ”

“ Herod. What else, Fawn? 193
Herc. What else? Nay, ’tis enough. Why, many men corrupt other men’s wives, some their maids, others their neighbours’ daughters; but to lie with one’s brother’s wedlock, [173] O, my dear Herod, ’tis vile [174] and uncommon lust.
Herod. ’Fore Heaven, I love thee to the heart! Well, I may praise God for my brother’s weakness, for I assure thee the land shall descend to me, my little Fawn. 201
Herc. To thee, my little Herod? O, my rare rascal, I do find more and more in thee to wonder at, for thou art, indeed—if I prosper, thou shalt know what. Who’s this? ”

“ Have you forgotten how Herod the Great had strangled, beneath the baths of Machærus, his wife’s brother, who was High Priest, to gain his end; and how when his best loved wife taunted him with murder and turned from him in hate, though he loved her to madness, he slew her, too, and stopped at naught to make his throne secure? I am such a Herod daughter! Shall we let slip what he paid such price to gain?”
The King’s brows knitted deep. Though scarce past mid-life, he bent with the impotence of fate too powerful for him to master. ”