The Land of the Hills and the Glens 



against the deep blue of the sky, while away to westward 

 the sea breeze brought with it white-tipped wavelets from the 

 Atlantic waters. 



With much labour a hiding-tent was set up and the top 

 covered with bracken, but although we waited for hours the 

 herons could not summon up sufficient courage to face the 

 strange erection, and we had to leave without success, nor 

 did circumstances permit of our attempting any further 

 photography that season. 



That same year, on June i6 — eight weeks later — my 

 way took me past the Glen of the Herons. The glen 

 was now clothed in its summer verdure. The primroses 

 had gone, and belts of bracken grew luxuriantly. The old 

 oak ^7KS now in full leaf, so that the nests of the herons 

 were partially hidden, but the birds were still there, and on 

 looking into the nests I was interested to see that one of 

 those which held, in late March, three eggs, contained now, 

 quite three months later, four eggs. Evidently these must 

 have been a second laying, unless another pair of herons 

 were tenanting the nest. Another interesting case was a 

 nest which contained two small young on April 20 and which 

 now held two newly-hatched young and one tgg. Young 

 herons remain long in the nest, and I doubt whether during 

 these eight weeks the first brood could have been reared, 

 the nest repaired, and a second clutch laid and hatched out. 

 It seems more probable that some mischance befell the first 

 family, and the parent bird laid a second clutch of eggs in 

 the same nest. 



In another season the Glen of the Herons was visited 

 on July 7 — a day when the mists hung low on the hills and 

 when the south-west wind brought with it soft driving 

 rain from off the Atlantic. On this occasion one nest 

 contained two young, about a fortnight old, and, pressing 

 close to them for their warmth, a tiny newly hatched 

 chick. In another nest were two eggs and a new-hatched 

 young one, while two other nests had large feathered young. 



74 



