390 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 
near Auchentorlie House (almost opposite Erskine) Herons have 
from time to time made an attempt to build, the last instance of 
which was in the spring of 1876, when a pair commenced a nest 
in the rookery at the Temple, but abandoned it. At Rosneath 
there is a Heronry which is supposed to be of old date, and which is 
still vigorous. The Duke of Argyll, who was born at Ardincaple 
Castle, opposite Rosneath, in 1823, seems to recollect this Heronry 
from his early days.!_ The birds used to build on the side of the 
wood facing Green Isle Point, but many of the trees have been 
destroyed by gales,? and they now nest deeper in the wood, and 
spread all through it as far as to Meiklecross Bay. The wood is 
mostly of Spruce Firs, but there are a considerable number of 
good Scots Firs, and in the latter the birds nest high up, say 60 
to 70 feet. On a recent visit (8th April, 1899) I counted 35 
nests, usually only one in a tree, but one tree had four. In such 
trees those nests have to be looked for, and are not easily seen, 
and I may have overlooked a few, but I hope this colony is not 
reduced since 1894 from the 70 nests then “estimated,” although 
the probability is that here, as in most other places, the numbers 
are decreasing, but, notwithstanding, it is the largest Heronry in 
“Clyde” at present. The young seem to be usually hatched out 
in the month of March here. 
BUTESHIRE. 
This island county has, at any rate, two extant Heronries, one 
of which, at Mount Stuart, has been known for more than one 
hundred years. John Blain, who came to Rothesay in 1761 as 
Town Clerk (died 1820), wrote a History of the Island of Bute, in 
which he says, ‘Herons breed in considerable number among 
the planting at Mount Stuart,”* and at the present time 

1 «* A Chat about Herons,” Badminton Magazine, September, 1898, p. 241. 
2 W.C. Maughan: Rosneath, Past and Present (1893), p. 244. 
3 Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glas., 1V. (N.S.), p. 272. Mr. Maughan, in his 
Annals of Garelochside (1896), p. 170, says that ‘‘ there were last year 
over 80 nests;” but in reply to my inquiry he informs me that this 
may possibly be a mistake (in lit. lst November, 1899). Mr. Maughan 
also kindly reports having heard that a few Herons nest on Duchlage, 
Rosneath, but I have not yet been able to confirm this. 
* Bryce’s Geology of Arran, dc. (4th ed., 1872), footnote, p. 296, and p. 304, 

