ARDEID.«. 



367 



THE COMMON HERON. 



Ardea cinerea, Linneeus. 



This bird is no longer protected as in the days of Falconry, but 

 it is still generally distributed throughout the British Islands ; and 

 in England the number of its colonies has suffered no diminution, 

 though many of them are seriously reduced in size as compared 

 with former times. In Scotland there never were many large 

 heronries, but small ones are scattered over the greater part of the 

 mainland as well as some of the outlying islands. The latter remark 

 applies to Ireland, where, however, there are also some important 

 assemblages in trees in cos. Cork, Waterford, Dublin, Down, 

 Donegal, Mayo and Galway. 



The Heron sometimes visits the Fseroes and Iceland, and a young 

 bird was picked up dead in South Greenland in 1856. On the coast 

 of Norway it ranges to 68° N. lat., though it does not reach beyond 

 57" in Sweden and Russia ; while southward it is found, in suitable 

 localities, over the greater part of Europe, and considerable numbers 

 breed in colonies in the marshes of Northern and Central Italy, the 

 valley of the Danube, and Southern Russia. In France there is one 



