BIRDS OF GUERNSEY. 149 



Islands, nor have I ever seen anything that bore 

 the most remote resemblance to the nest of a Heron. 

 Mr. MacCuUoch, however, writes to me as follows : 

 " The Heron is said to breed occasionally on the 

 Amfrocques and others of those small islets north 

 of Herm." Mr. Howard Saunders, Col. L 'Estrange, 

 and myself, however, visited all these islets this last 

 breeding season (1878), and though we saw Herons 

 about fishing in the shallow pools left by the tide, 

 we could see nothing that would lead us to suppose 

 that Herons ever bred there, in fact, though Herons 

 have been kno^Tti to breed on cliifs by the sea ; the 

 Amfroques and all the other little wild rock}^ islets 

 are apparently the most unlikely places for Herons 

 to breed on. In Guernsey itself, however, it is 

 more likely that a few Herons formerly bred, and 

 that there was once a small Heronry in the Vale. 

 As Mr. MacCulloch writes to me, " There is a 

 locality in the parish of St. Samson, at the foot of 

 Delancy Hill, in the vicinity of the marshes near 

 the Ivy Castle, formerly thickly wooded with old 

 elms, which bears the name of La Heroniere. It 

 may have been a resort of Herons, but I am bound 

 to say the name may have been derived from a 

 family called 'Heron,' now extinct." It seems to 

 me also possible that the family derived their 

 name from being the proprietors of the only 

 Heronry in Guernsey. In the place mentioned by 

 Mr. MacCulloch there are still a great many elm 



