470 BRITISH BIRDS. 
The note of the Heron is harsh, rather like the sound of a trumpet, but 
more guttural and very short, and is generally uttered when the bird is 
flying. When the bird is alarmed this note is modulated into a sort of 
croak. The Heron is, however, generally a very silent bird. 
In the south of England the Heron is one of the earliest birds to breed, 
and eggs may be obtained in the first week of March, but in Scotland they 
are seldom laid before the end of that month. In Germany they are not 
laid until the latter half of April, in Norway not until May, and in the valley 
of the Lower Danube not until the first week of June. The late breeding 
of this species in the valley of the Danube is a remarkable instance of the 
special adaptation of the habits of a bird to the peculiar circumstances by 
which it is surrounded: neither a warm climate nor abundance of food 
tempt it to begin operations until the sun has begun to melt the snow on 
the Carpathians and the Alps, causing this great river to rise and to over- 
flow the lowlands that extend for miles between its main branches, and 
make the willow-forests inaccessible, except with a boat. In these solitudes 
it breeds in immense colonies, together with Ibises, Night-Herons, Squacco 
Herons, Little Egrets, and Pigmy Cormorants, building a large nest in the 
middle of a pollard willow, a few feet above the level of the flood, with 
perhaps a score nests of its smaller companions in the same tree. ‘The 
favourite breeding-place of the Heron is, however, lofty trees, the flat 
' -branch of a larch or the extreme summit of an elm, a Scotch fir, an oak, 
or asycamore. ‘These heronries are generally to be found near water, but 
sometimes at a considerable distance from it. In localities where there 
are no trees, it builds its nest on ledges of rocks or ruins, and even on the 
heathery slope of a mountain-side. The nest is a large structure, composed 
of sticks and lined with fine twigs ; it is very flat, and sometimes contains 
turf and moss. The old nest is usually repaired year after year, and by the 
time the young are able to fly, it is whitewashed with the droppings of the 
birds. Several nests are generally built in one tree. 
The Heron lays from three to five eggs, but the full number seems rarely 
to come to maturity. On the ground under the nests numerous dead young 
birds of various ages are usually to be seen amongst the broken egg-shells 
that the Herons have cast out of the nest and the twigs which they have 
dropped in the process of building. When the young are able to fly, 
frequently not more than one or two are seen in each nest, and these if 
pursued will climb on the branches or up to the neighbouring nests, 
using their bills, as well as their feet, almost like a parrot. 
The eggs of the Heron are greenish blue in colour, dull, and chalky in 
texture. The shell is often full of minute pits, or covered with small 
white excrescences. Some eggs are a much bluer green than others. 
They vary in length from 2°65 to 2°83 inch, and in breadth from 1°79 to 
A 
