
HERONRIES IN THE CLYDE FAUNAL AREA, 381 
nesting on Craigengillan* ; nor do I know of any other nesting 
locality around Loch Doon, although this is a most likely centre, 
and the bird is common thereabouts. At Doonside (Ayr) a pond 
was made eleven years ago, which is bounded on one side by 
an old wood, and once or twice within the last seven or eight 
years, Herons have had a nest inan Ash tree, and brought out and 
reared young ones there. None nested there last season (1898), 
but as the birds frequent the pond, sometimes as many as a 
dozen at a time,? a hope may be cherished that they will yet 
settle at Doonside. In Loch Fergus is a small island with the 
remains of a monastery on it, and the new Statistical Account 
says that “till lately this islet was the site of some fine old trees, 
and the resort of Herons. But those successors of the monks 
have long since deserted their haunt, and their memory, like that 
of their predecessors, has almost passed into oblivion.” A foot- 
note further states that “in a small work entitled A Summary 
of the Chronicles of Scotland, published in 1624, . . . mention is 
made of ‘Loch Fergus, with an isle with many growing trees, 
where great plenty of Herons resort, with the loch-seal.’”* It 
may be assumed that this was a breeding station. It is the 
earliest record of a Clyde Heronry I know, and assuming further 
that it continued in existence between the two dates indicated 
above, it is also the longest period, as the time covered is over 
200 years. At Fullarton (Troon) there is a slight eminence 
called the Heron Hill, and there in the North Wood, in Scots 
Firs, Herons used to build in considerable numbers. Early in 
the present century, some of these trees being cut down, a 
number of the birds left, but about eight pairs built there every 
een tr ee 
1 Mr. W. Herron, in lit., 6th March, 1899. 
2 Mr. W. H. Dunlop, én lit., 16th March, 1899. 
8 Vol. V. (1845), p. 655. 
4 The author of this work, of which there are many editions, is John 
Monipennie, and the year to which it refers, according to another title 
quoted by Gray in his Birds of the West of Scotland, is A.D. 1597. 
Of Monipennie little or nothing is known, but Mr. P. Hume Brown 
(author of Scotland before 1700 from Contemporary Documents, 1893) 
kindly informs me, in reply to my inquiry, that his impression is that in 
what Monipennie relates of the Scotland of his day he writes in perfect 
good faith (in lit., 26th August, 1899). The Loch Fergus Heronry seems 
thus to be well enough authenticated. 
