20 ORNITHOLOGICAL EAMBLES. 



After crossing tlie river by Greatham bridge, 

 and passing rapidly over the flat, dyke-inter- 

 sected plain that lay beyond, where the black- 

 headed bunting sat perched on the wooden-rails, 

 and the sedge warbler scolded inveterately among 

 the reeds on either side of the road, I reached 

 the higher grounds, when, following a dry, sandy 

 track across a common, and afterwards skirting a 

 plantation of larch trees, whose graceful branches 

 hung over the path, fresh in all the bright ver- 

 dure of early May, I at last arrived at Parham, 

 traversed its beautiful park, dismounted from my 

 horse, and soon afterwards found myself creeping 

 cautiously through the thick wood of Scotch and 

 spruce firs in which the heronry is situated, my 

 object being to approach so near as, if possible, to 

 obtain a good view of the birds between the in- 

 tervals of the trees, before they had become con- 

 scious of my presence. As I advanced, I could 

 hear the indescribable half croaking, half hissing 

 sound uttered by the young birds when in the 

 act of being fed by the old ones, but a treacherous 

 stick snapping beneath my foot, all was changed 

 in an instant; the unfledged inhabitants of the 

 nests became suddenly mute, and every adult 

 member of the colony was at once on the wing. 

 Some ascended into the air to a considerable 

 height, screaming loudly, others flapped heavily 



