Northern Observations of Inland Birds 225 



for their food, each heronry distributing its members 

 over an area at least sixty miles across. The young birds 

 are hatched quite early in the spring, but those I have 

 watched have not left their native trees, and have been 

 entirely dependent on their parents, till well on in August. 

 This slow maturity would seem to indicate long life. 

 The young take to the branches when a few weeks old, 

 and every old bird that approaches is greeted with an 

 immense uproar of screechings and raspings, while the 

 parent birds also utter many strange notes at this season. 

 As the chicks become almost fully fledged the male 

 birds at any rate distribute their hospitality quite im- 

 partially, the first chick at hand receiving the food, quite 

 regardless of its parentage. It would seem that only a 

 small proportion of the birds frequenting the heronry 

 have nests there. 



When pursued by a hawk the heron is said to rise 

 almost vertically, and it was owing to the fine flights 

 they generally put up that herons were in the days of 

 falconry considered as sacred as the pheasant is con- 

 sidered to-day. Now it stands as a somewhat forlorn 

 and solitary figure, in some localities half-heartedly 

 preserved, in others heedlessly persecuted, claiming no 

 special interest or attention save in so far as its great 

 size commands passing notice or comment. The heron 

 has, indeed, fallen from a place of high eminence among 

 our sporting birds to the lowly position of questionable 

 vermin. I have never seen one in flight before a hawk, 

 but in the Kells Hills one day I saw one very much scared 

 by a pair of buzzards, which of course had no thought 

 of attacking it. Far from seeking the uppermost heavens, 

 however, the heron at once descended almost to the 

 surface of the water, flying so low that the draught from 

 its vans left a long trail of ripples behind it. 



As already stated, the heron seems to live in great 



