HERONRIES IN THE CLYDE FAUNAL AREA. 389 



and they gradually diminished ^ until the climax came as above 

 stated. It is possible some of these birds may have resorted to 

 the policies of Buchanan Castle, as I am informed that 

 there are single nests in that locality. I am also told 

 by Mr. Walter Brown that a small colony of six or eight nests 

 exists at the Mid Lodge, near the River Endrick, in Larch trees. 

 This seems to have been known as far back as present recollec- 

 tions go. At Craigallian, Herons have been known within recent 

 years to nest in the wood on the north-east side of the beautiful 

 little loch there, but only to the number of one or. two pairs. 

 None was observed this year. 



Dumbartonshire. 



Mr. James Lumsden says that " none breed in the Loch Lomond 

 district, so far as I know," but that 20 or 30 years ago they 

 nested on Inch Connachan, but only to the extent of 

 three nests." In June, 1899, I was in Luss Straits on 

 three separate occasions, and always saw a few Herons about. 

 When disturbed they moved into either Inch Tavannach or Inch 

 Connachan, and I saw one alight on a tree on the last-named 

 island. Both islands are densely wooded, and it is not improbable 

 that there are again one or two Herons' nests therein. Gray 

 writes " there is a small Heronry on one of the islands," ^ and Mr. 

 Harting (under Stirlingshire) that a "few pairs nest on an island 

 at the head of the loch." * This is, no doubt, Elan-a-Vow, but 

 they are not there now, and it seems rather remarkable that such 

 a favourable locality as Loch Lomond is Heronry-less. In Mr. 

 Harvie-Brown's interleaved copy of Gray's Birds of the West of 

 Scotland (1871), there is a Heronry entered at "Glen Fruin, auct. 

 R. Gray : " and also, " Kirkintilloch, at Gartshore, a Heronry, 

 within ten years back ; " and the new Statistical Account takes the 

 last-named back to an earlier date, when it says, under " Bertram 

 Shotts" — "the Ardea cinerea oiieTi visits us from Hamilton, Gart- 

 shore, and other places." ^ Mr. W. A. Donnelly informs me that 



^ Miss Mary Blackburn, in. lit., 7th February, 1899. 



- Guide to the Nat. Hist, of Loch Lomond (1895), p. 47. 



" Quadrupeds, Birds, and Fishes of Loch Lomond, dbc, (1864). 



4 Zoologist (1872), p. 3269. -^ Vol. VI., p. 627 (1839). 



