390 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



near Auchentorlie House (almost opposite Erskine) Herons have 

 from time to time made an attempt to build, the last instance of 

 which was in the spring of 1876, when a pair commenced a nest 

 in the rookery at the Temple, but abandoned it. At Rosneath 

 there is a Pleronry which is supposed to be of old date, and which is 

 still vigorous. The Duke of Argyll, who was born at Ardincaple 

 Castle, opposite Rosneath, in 1823, seems to recollect this Heronry 

 from his early days.^ The birds used to build on the side of the 

 wood facing Green Isle Point, but many of the trees have been 

 destroyed by gales,* and they now nest deeper in the wood, and 

 spread all through it as far as to Meiklecross Bay. The wood is 

 mostly of Spruce Firs, but there are a considerable number of 

 good Scots Firs, and in the latter the birds nest high up, say 60 

 to 70 feet. On a recent visit (8th April, 1899) I counted 35 

 nests, usually only one in a tree, but one tree had four. In such 

 trees those nests have to be looked for, and are not easily seen, 

 and I may have overlooked a few, but I hope this colony is not 

 reduced since 1894 from the 70 nests then " estimated,"^ although 

 the probability is that here, as in most other places, the numbers 

 are decreasing, but, notwithstanding, it is the largest Heronry in 

 " Clyde " at present. The young seem to be usually hatched out 

 in the month of March here. 



Buteshire. 



This island county has, at any rate, two extant Heronries, one 

 of which, at Mount Stuart, has been known for more than one 

 hundred years. John Blain, who came to Rothesay in 1761 as 

 Town Clerk (died 1820), wrote a History of the Island of Bute, in 

 which he says, "Herons breed in considerable number among 

 the planting at Mount Stuart,"'* and at the present time 



1 "A Chat about Herons," Badminton MagarAne^ September, 189S, p. 241. 



2 W. C. Maughan : Rosneath, Past and Present (1893), p. 244. 



3 Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glas., IV. (N.S.), p. 272. Mr. Maughan, in his 

 Annals of Garelochside (1896), p. 170, says that "there were last year 

 over 80 nests ; " but in reply to my inquiry he informs me that this 

 may possibly be a mistake {in lit. 1st November, 1899). Mr. Maughan 

 also kindly reports having heard that a few Herons nest on Duehlage, 

 Rosneath, but I have not yet been able to confirm this. 



* Bryce's Geology ofArran, d:c. (4th ed., 1872), footnote, p. 296, and p. 304, 



