AKPF.ID.K. 



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THE COMMON HERON, 

 Ardea cinkrea, Linnicus. 



Though no longer protected, as in the days of falconry, the 

 Common Heron is generally distributed throughout the British 

 Islands ; and in England the number of its colonics has suffered 

 no diminution, though many of them are seriously reduced in size 

 as compared with former times. In Scotland there never were many 

 large heronries, but small ones are scattered over the greater part 

 of the country, except the outlying islands ; and the latter remark 

 applies to Ireland, where, however, some important assemblages in 

 trees are to be found in cos. Cork, Waterford, Dublin, Down, Donegal 

 and ]\Iayo. 



The Heron sometimes visits the Fi\;roes and Iceland, and a young 

 bird was picked up dead in South Greenland in 1856. On the coast 

 of Norway it ranges to 68^ N. lat., though it does not reach beyond 

 57° in Sweden and Russia ; while southward it is found, in suitable 

 localities, over the greater part of Europe, and considerable numbers 

 breed in colonies in the marshes of Northern and Central Italy, the 

 valley of the Danube, and Southern Russia. In France, however, 



