Bird Notes and News 



46 



THE DECREASE OF THE HERON. 



Herons are of all birds perhaps those suffer- 

 ing most severely through the destruction 

 of woodland ; and the paper on " The 

 Heronries of Somerset," contributed by the 

 late Dr. Wiglesworth to the Proceedings of the 

 Somerset Archaeological and Natural History 

 Society is not only melancholy in itself but 

 suggestive of what is going on all over the 

 country. Herons are rapidly becoming almost 

 rare birds — in this respect resembling almost 

 all the large birds of England — and to the 

 persecution by fishing interests (especially 

 fishing syndicates) has now to be added 

 destruction of ancient nesting-sites. Of six 

 heronries enumerated for Somerset, two became 

 extinct through timber-cutting, though the 

 trees inhabited were themselves not then 

 touched ; another has but one-fourth of its old 

 numbers ; and not more than 126 pairs of 

 breeding birds remain in the county. 



Dr. Wiglesworth adds : — 



" There can be no question as to the main cause 

 of this decrease. The predilection of the birds for 

 fish is well known, so that the ban of the angler is 

 upon them, and in fishing districts they get rut&essly 

 destroyed whenever opportunity offers. Indeed, were 

 it not for the protection afforded them by the owners 

 of several private estates, within the precincts of 

 which they breed, the birds would probably ere this 

 have become extinct in the county. 



" That Herons feed largely upon fish, and at times, 

 especially in droughty seasons when the streams are 

 low, may do considerable harm to fisheries, cannot be 

 denied, but the damage that they do has been exag- 

 gerated. Even their liking for fish is not without its 



advantages, as they consume useless and harmful fiiht 

 such as pike, equally with the trout upon which 

 anglers set such store, and . . . prey largely 

 upon eels. 



" It would indeed be a lamentable thing if a too 

 great devotion to the cult of fishing were to banish 

 this interesting bird from our midst. It is the sole 

 British resident representative of a beautiful family 

 of birds widely spread over the surface of the globe, 

 one which gives keen delight alike to the ornithologist 

 and to the lover of nature generally, and if the bird 

 were once lost it could hardly be re-established. 



" But the birds have another danger to face besides 

 the hostility of fishermen, and that is the destruction 

 of their breeding grounds. Herons, although much 

 attached to ancient breeding- places, are notoriously 

 sensitive to disturbance ; and the felling of trees, 

 even if only in the neighbourhood of their quarters, 

 often causes them to abandon a site altogether . . . 

 However inevitable the tree-felling which is now 

 actively in progress, and which is likely to continue 

 on a large scale for some time to come, we must 

 recognise the fact that this is bound to have an 

 inimical effect on the birds. 



" The number of suitable breeding-sites, affording 

 the requisite security, is even now by no means un- 

 limited, and such sites, under present conditions, will 

 become more and more restricted. 



" Birds may survive a good deal of slaughter if they 

 are allowed to breed in security, but no bird can 

 survive the destruction of its breeding-grounds. It 

 is, therefore, all the more necessary that the available 

 sanctuaries should be carefully preserved. More than 

 ever is it the case that it is to the large landowners 

 that we must look for the preservation of this stately 

 and interesting bird to our county fauna." 



Not in Somerset only, but to owners of 

 heronries in every county of Great Britain, 

 the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds 

 urgently prefers Dr. Wiglesworth's plea. 



The Plumage Trade. 



Natural Hi star i^, the organ of the American 

 Museum of Natural History, publishes a 

 striking account of the Herons, Terns, Roseate 

 Spoonbills, and other species now protected 

 on the Louisiana coast. Formerly " this State 

 was the slaughter ground of the plume and 

 wing hunters, but to-day Louisiana has under 

 her protection more than 300.000 acres of land 

 and salt marsh given over entirely as places of 

 refuge for wild life." To guard this urea from 

 trade pirates a force of over a hundred men 

 and eighteen patrol boats is employed. How 

 well the birds respond to protection is shown 

 by the fact that on Avery Island Mr. McJlhenny 

 started a colony of the nearly extinct Snowy 



Egrets, and now the birds return yearly and nest 

 fearlessly within thirty feet of a railroad and 

 a hundred yards of a factory. When the young 

 have growing appetites, each parent makes six 

 or eight trips a day to the fishpond. 



" One bird watches continually at the nest, and when 

 its mate returns with crop full of fish for the joung 

 birds, the two caress and coo with a great show of 

 affection, throwing out their plumes like puffs of 

 powder and erecting their crests and neck feathers." 



It is just at this season, when the birds are 

 tending their young and easiest of approach, 

 that Herons and Egrets are killed to provide 

 women with" ospreys " and to fill the pockets 

 of the trade. 



