Greek mathematician and inventor who devised a way to determine the area of a triangle and who described various mechanical devices (first century)
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grey or white wading bird with long neck and long legs and (usually) long bill
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Heron \Her"on\, n. [OE. heiroun, heroun, heron, hern, OF. hairon, F. h['e]ron, OHG. heigir; cf. Icel. hegri, Dan. heire, Sw. h["a]ger, and also G. h["a]her jay, jackdaw, OHG. hehara, higere, woodpecker, magpie, D. reiger heron, G. reiher, AS. hr[=a]gra. Cf. {Aigret}, {Egret}.] (Zo["o]l.) Any wading bird of the genus {Ardea} and allied genera, of the family {Ardeid[ae]}. The herons have a long, sharp bill, and long legs and toes, with the claw of the middle toe toothed. The common European heron ({Ardea cinerea}) is remarkable for its directly ascending flight, and was formerly hunted with the larger falcons.
Note: There are several common American species; as, the great blue heron ({Ardea herodias}); the little blue ({Ardea c[oe]rulea}); the green ({Ardea virescens}); the snowy ({Ardea candidissima}); the night heron or qua-bird ({Nycticorax nycticorax}). The plumed herons are called {egrets}.
{Heron's bill} (Bot.), a plant of the genus {Erodium}; -- so called from the fancied resemblance of the fruit to the head and beak of the heron.
In its 38 years, The Nature Conservancy has saved threatened lands ranging from 343 square miles of rare New Mexican desert grassland to a heron feeding ground on nine-tenths of an acre of Connecticut marsh.
One gulp and they are gone." She spread rakes, brooms, 2-by-4 boards and shelves across the pond, but "they only provided better perches for the heron to gobble fish," she said.
It fled shamelessly at the appearance of a fearsome tiger heron.