384 TRANSACTIONS. NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



all, but some of these appeared to be incomplete. As many as 



20 birds were in sight about one tree at the same time, and in 



one central tree there were seven nests or portions of nests. 



There is apparently some increase here, as about ten nests each 



year was given me as the number. ^ This Heronry seems to be 



somewhat remarkable in its present situation, as the birds have 



chosen as exposed and open a place as can be found on Kel- 



burn (visible from the public road), and there are larger and 



denser pieces of woodland near at hand, where concealment could 



be better found. Two photographs taken by Mr John Fleming, 



and now put before you, show the appearance of the nests 



and the trees. The policies of Caldwell are partly in Ayrshire 



and partly in Renfrewshire, and here, according to a MS. 



"List of the Birds of Renfrewshire" in possession of the Paisley 



Naturalists' Society, compiled about the year 1865, the Heron 



nested,^ but I have been unable to obtain definite information 



as to this, or indeed any personal recollection of the fact 



recorded in the Paisley list. Out of these sixteen Ayrshire 



localities named now, only three can be said to be presently 



occupied, and only Eglinton and Kelburn worthy of the name 



Heronry. 



Renfrewshire. 



At Ardgowan there is a small Heronry near the shore at the 

 Cuckoo Walk, in Scots Firs and Larches. Formerly the birds 

 nested in some trees near the home-farm, nearer Inverkip, but 

 most of these trees fell during the Tay Bridge storm (1879), 

 and no doubt it is to this locality that records of " Inverkip " 

 refer, ^ and while my furthest back date is 1865, it may 

 be presumed that this Heronry existed anterior to this, and 

 I hope it may long continue to exist. The number of nests 

 seems to have run from six upwards, but never, since the date 

 named, to have exceeded twelve. There were about ten when 

 this Society visited Ardgowan on 21st April, 1894, and the 

 young were then hatched out. * Further up the Clyde, at 



1 Mr. J. Menzies, in lit., 3rd March, 1899. 

 - Fide Mr. A. Stevenson. 



^ Paisley MS. (1865) ; Zoologist (1872) ; and Fauna and Flora of 

 Clydesdale, etc. (1876). 



* Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glus., IV. (N.S.), p. 123. 



