HEROXRIES IN THE CLYDE FAUNAL AREA. 395 



Heronry of five or six nests in Eir trees. Some years ago there 

 was only one pair that nested regularly, but protection being ex- 

 tended to the birds, they have increased. That they are quite at 

 home will be understood when I say that Colonel McLeod informs 

 me that one severe winter they came to his house and fed with 

 gulls and other birds close to the door. ^ They have been known 

 to nest here forty years ago, and may have been more numerous 

 then.- My last record is from the furthest west point in 

 our area — the Mull of Kin tyre. Here is a great stretch of 

 barren, treeless land, heather and rock, said to extend for 50 or 

 60 square miles, and the Heron, adapting itself to its surround- 

 ings, nests on ledges of rocks or large stones or on the ground.^ 

 To what number I cannot say, and it might be difficult to find 

 out, but that there is a large number of Herons sometimes in 

 Kintyre is borne out by the following observation : — " I remember 

 on two occasions in the autumn of 1896 of seeing from 100 to 150 

 of the birds all standing close together on a hill-side above a 

 fresh-water loch (Auchylochy), all the time keeping up an in- 

 cessant harsh gabble, which could easily have been heard a mile 

 away." * 



SUMMARY. 



The tabular list which follows contains the names of 55 nesting 

 localities altogether, some twenty of which are occupied at present, 

 but of these six or seven are in a precarious condition. 

 I would estimate that there may be in our area this season a total 

 of about 215 nests of the Heron. Assuming that from these 

 nurseries 350 young are reared successfully and sent out on the 

 journey of life, these, along with the parent birds, = 430 (2 for each 

 nest), and young which may be produced from possible second 

 broods and unmated birds, which together I assume to amount to 

 a further 120, will form a Heron population of about 900 indi- 

 viduals in the autumn. I think this census is approximately 



1 Colonel J. N. McLeod, in lit., 7th March, 1899. 

 - Fide Mr. A. Gray. 



3 Mr. A. Gray, in lit., 27th February, 1899. 

 * Lit. cit. (above). 



