14 ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 



LETTER IT. 



■ Jiist then, in sign she favoured their intent, 

 A long-wing-ed heron great Minerva sent, 

 This, tlio' surrounding shades obscured their view, 

 By the shrill clang and whistling wings they knew." 



Pope's Homer. 



Parham : Its situation — A May Morning — Cross-coun- 

 try. Ride — Wild Common — Yalley of the Arun — 

 Amberley Castle — "Wild-Fowl Haunts in Olden 

 Time — Winter Floods — Heronry invaded — Value 

 of a Spy-glass — Heron's Nest : Its Warlike occu- 

 pant — Another Nest — Old Bird feeding its Young 

 — Rooks versus Herons — The Heron a calumniated 

 Bird — Heron and Water Rat — Winter Quarters — 

 Genealogy of the Parham Heronry. 



I QUITE agree with you, that next to the falcons 

 themselves, the heron — the noblest object of their 

 pursuit — which in days of yore used to stand at 

 the head of the British game-list, has the strongest 

 claim to our protection. 



While the ranks of this patrician bird, so long 

 associated in our ideas Avith the old Enoiish hall 

 and baronial castle, are gradually disappearing 



