THE BIRDS OF BRECONSHIRE. 99 
remember, I moved a splendid cock 
Heron from a spring, or as it is called 
here a ‘‘soak,” near the Gludy Lake. 
Happening to be in the same place a 
few days after, I found one (probably the 
same bird) dead from starvation. About 
the same time I also saw another Heron 
dead from the same cause on the banks 
of a pond at Penlan, close by Brecon. 
A very small colony of Herons have 
bred in a wood near Senny Bridge for 
many years, but their nests never seem 
to increase beyond half-a-dozen. These 
birds, I am glad to say, have a very easy 
time of it here, not being often molested, 
as if killed they are seldom or ever 
eaten. A few breed every year at 
Buckland, the seat of Mr. Gwynne 
Holford; another small colony exists at 
the Loscoed, near Devynock; and there 
are also a few breeding every year in the 
larch wood close to Tregunter. My 
brother-in-law once killed a Heron in a 
field close by a stream and found his 
crop filled with field mice—a somewhat 
curious repast fora fish eater. I should 
add that some ten years ago my second 
son killed in the winter one of the 
largest Herons I have ever seen on the 
