HERONRIES IN THE CLYDE FAUNAE AREA. 385 



Erskine, is a nesting locality which has some interesting associa- 

 tions, and which is the nearest spot to Glasgow where we can 

 now expect to see a Heron's nest, but I am afraid, at the most 

 there have not been more than two nests annually for the last 

 few years. Part of the wood bears the name of the " Heron 

 Green," and that there was a flourishing colony is borne out by 

 the following passage from the new Statistical Account '^ of 

 Erskine (dated August, 1840, and April, 1842) — "In the woods 

 at Erskine, which overhang the Clyde, opposite the old Roman 

 fortress of Dunglass, there is a large Heronr}^, which has existed 

 there for a great length of time, and which is the more interest- 

 ing, as it is alleged, there are only one or two more to be found in 

 Scotland. It is a fine sight to observe these noble birds fishing 

 in the river at ebb-tide, and their success may be estimated from 

 the fact, that the walks under their nests are often strewed with 

 flounders and other fish, which they have not been able to use."' 

 This fine sight has departed, I fear, for ever. John Wolley, the great 

 oologist, seems to have known this colony, as there is this entry 

 in his Egg Books (MSS. ?) " 1850. Heronry on Lord Blantyre's 

 estates on Clyde ;" ^ and Mr Harting mentions it as existing " in 

 aged and lofty trees," "^ although he puts Erskine under 

 Dumbartonshire. Mr. W. A. Donnelly informs me that within 

 the last thirty years there were about twenty birds nesting not 

 far from the mansion-house in Ash, Elm, and Sycamore trees. 

 In 1890 (3rd May) I first saw Herons here, and was informed 

 that two pairs nested. I had much the same report for last 

 year (1898)."* The contiguous parish of Inchinnan at the time 

 (1845) of publication of the new Statistical Account possessed a 

 Heronry " on some high fir trees in Park wood, adjacent to the 

 Newshot isle in the Clyde," ^ but of this I have no further 

 information, nor do I know when it became extinct. Of Castle 

 Semple a similar story to the Erskine one has to be related, and a 

 like fate chronicled, for it is doubtful if one pair of Herons now 

 nests there. ^ The present keeper (G. M Arthur), whose recollec- 



1 Vol. VII. (1S45), p. 505. 



2 Mr, J. A. Harvie-Brown's " Clj^cle" file, per favour of Prof. A. Newton. 

 » Zoologist (1872), p. 3267. 



* Mr. C. Hogg, ill lit., 14th January, 1899. 



6 Vol. VII. (1845), p. 117. 



e Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glas., IV. (N.S.), p. 363. 



