WINTER QUARTERS. 35 



fore all the members of the heronry had found 

 their way over the Downs to their new quarters 

 in the fir-woods of Parham. This occurred about 

 seventeen years ago. 



The number of the nests now appears to be 

 rather increasing than diminishing, although an 

 unusually severe winter never fails to thin the 

 ranks of their occupants. The ponds, brooks, and 

 ditches, which they have been in the habit of fre- 

 quenting, being then frozen up, the poor birds 

 are driven to the sea-coast and the salt marshes 

 at the mouths of the rivers, beyond the Downs: 

 there the murderous fowling-piece stops the ca- 

 reer of many a straggler in his winter quarters, 

 and the ensuing spring finds several nests unten- 

 anted; but a favourable season soon sets all to 

 rights; the gaps are filled up; and the kind- 

 hearted proprietor of Parham, in return for his 

 care and protection, can now boast of possessing 

 one of the finest establishments in the kino-dom 

 of this magnificent and interesting species. 



