HERONRIES IN THE CLYDE FAUNAL AREA. 381 



nesting on Craigengillan^ ; nor do I know of any other nesting 

 locality around Loch Doon, although this is a most likely centre, 

 and the bird is common thereabouts. At Doonside (Ayr) a pond 

 was made eleven years ago, which is bounded on one side by 

 an old wood, and once or twice within the last seven or eight 

 years, Herons have had a nest in an Ash tree, and brought out and 

 reared young ones there. None nested there last season (1898), 

 but as the birds frequent the pond, sometimes as many as a 

 dozen at a time,- a hope may be cherished that they will yet 

 settle at Doonside. In Loch Fergus is a small island with the 

 remains of a monastery on it, and the new Statistical Account 

 says that " till lately this islet was the site of some fine old trees, 

 and the resort of Herons. But those successors of the monks 

 have long since deserted their haunt, and their memory, like that 

 of their predecessors, has almost passed into oblivion."^ A foot- 

 note further states that " in a small work entitled A Summary 

 of the Chronicles of Scotland, published in 1624, . . . mention is 

 made of 'Loch Fergus, with an isle with many growing trees, 

 where great plenty of Herons resort, with the loch-seal.' " - It 

 may be assumed that this was a breeding station. It is the 

 earliest record of a Clyde Heronry I know, and assuming further 

 that it continued in existence between the two dates indicated 

 above, it is also the longest period, as the time covered is over 

 200 years. At Fullarton (Troon) there is a slight eminence 

 called the Heron Hill, and there in the North Wood, in Scots 

 Firs, Herons used to build in considerable numbers. Early in 

 the present century, some of these trees being cut down, a 

 number of the birds left, but about eight pairs built there every 



^ Mr. W. Herron, in lit., 6th March, 1899. 



« Mr. W. H. Dunlop, inlit., 16th March, 1899. 



8 Vol. V. (1845), p. 655. 



^ The author of this work, of which there are many editions, is John 

 Monipennie, and the year to which it refers, according to another title 

 quoted by Gray in his Birds of the West of Scotland, is a.d. 1597. 

 Of Monipennie little or nothing is known, but Mr. P. Hume Brown 

 (author of Scotland before 1700 from Contemporary Documents, 1893) 

 kindly informs me, in reply to my inquiry, that his impression is that in 

 what Monipennie relates of the Scotland of his day he writes in perfect 

 good faith [in lit., 26th August, 1899). The Loch Fergus Heronry seems 

 thus to be well enough authenticated. 



