COMMON HERON. 137 



but an old established colony at Herringfleet, near 

 Lowestoft, still exists on the borders of the adjoining 

 county.'^ Mr. Frere, of Yarmouth, has moreover kindly 

 ascertained the sites of three heronries which have 

 been deserted within the last thirty or forty years. The 

 first of these on the estate of Mr. Browne, of Thrigby, 

 was visited by Mr. J. H. Gurney about the year 1839, 

 when some half-dozen pairs still nested there, but these 

 were probably driven away by the rooks. There was 

 also a small heronry at Norton Hall, near Loddon, 

 some twenty-five years since of which no trace remains ; 

 and a rather considerable one at Clippesby, which was 

 destroyed in 1834; since which time all the efforts of 

 the present owner of the estate have failed to induce 

 the birds to build there again. Another small colony 

 at Claxton, near Reedham, latterly consisting of but 

 two or three pairs, finally deserted that station about 

 two years since. 



The heron is one of our earliest breeders, and 

 remarkable for the punctuality with which it revisits 

 for that purpose its accustomed haunts. Mr. Tyssen- 

 Amhurst in a communication to Mr. Gould's ^^ Birds of 

 Great Britain," states that "the Didlington heronry 

 is regularly peopled within a day or two of the middle 

 of February. There is then a great clattering of bills 

 and flapping of wings, with other indisputable evidence 

 of their having paired, and that the breeding season is 

 about to commence. Early in March tlu-ee or four eggs 

 are laid, and by the middle of April the task of incuba- 

 tion has terminated, and the young are hatched." 

 Usually between the 14th and 28th of April I have seen 

 young herons in the down, about two or three days old, 

 resembling exactly the four nestlings figured by Mr. 



* In SuflFolk, also, not so far from our limits as to be quite out 

 of reach, I am told by Mr. Alfred ISTewton of small heronries at 

 Cavenham and Chippenham. 

 T 



