380 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 
subject. I am glad to have this opportunity of acknowledging 
my indebtedness, and expressing my thanks to all who have 
assisted me. 
AYRSHIRE. 
Beginning in the south of our area, at Glenapp, Herons have 
seldom been known to nest, and not for many years;1? and at 
Lendalfoot, Mr. C. Berry told me (8th April, 1898) that he knew 
of no Heronry in his district, although the birds coming about 
were all immature. I consider these negative records, when 
obtained from reliable sources, worth noting here, even although 
they only amount to a clearing of the ground, particularly when 
they refer to localities from which the bird has been reported as” 
breeding. Mr. Berry had heard something of them breeding up 
about Barrhill, and this rumour probably has reference to 
Loch Goosey, which, although in Ayrshire, is beyond the Clyde 
watershed, and drains into the Cree (“Solway”). Mr W. C. 8. 
Fergusson, formerly secretary of the Ayr Natural History Society, 
knew this Heronry as long as he could remember, and he was often 
at Loch Goosey ; he remembers “some years ago a notice appeared 
in the papers offering a reward of £20 for information against 
some party who had robbed the nests.”* With this token of 
vigorous protection in mind, it was a disappointment to me 
when I visited the loch (3rd April, 1899), not to see a single 
Heron; on the small trees on the island were to be seen what 
might be two nests, but I was unable to get across to them. 
There is never likely to have been a large number of nests 
here, as, while the island is thickly set with trees, mostly Birch, 
it is of limited area, and the trees are small in size. In 
the Girvan Valley I know of no Heronry, but in a recent 
year (1897?) there was one nest at Kilkerran ; and some years 
ago a Heron was shot on its nest, which was placed on the 
edge of the bank of the River Girvan.* Up till about fifteen 
years ago, a good many Herons built in a wood at Craigengillan 
(Dalmellington), mostly in Larch trees, but the storms of 1884-85 
blew all this wood down, and since then there has been none 
1 Mr. Trevor Eyton’s MS. notes. 
2 In lit. to Mr. John Paterson, 11th June, 1895. 
& Mr, R. Kitchin, in lit, to Mr, G. Rose, 25th January, 1899, 

