172 THE COMMON HERON 
During a great portion of the year the Heron is a wanderer. I 
have frequently seen it at least fifty miles distant from the nearest 
heronry ; but when it has discovered a spot abounding in food, 
it repairs thither day after day for a long period. 
In the month of January, if mild, but as a rule in February, 
Herons show a disposition to congregate, and soon after repair to 
their old-established breeding-places, called Heronries. These are 
generally lofty trees, firs or deciduous trees in parks, or even in 
groves close by old family mansions. One at Kilmorey, by Loch 
Gilphead, has long been frequented, though within a hundred 
yards of the house. The nests, huge masses of sticks, a yard 
across, lined with a little grass, and other soft materials, are placed 
near each other, as many, sometimes, as a hundred in a colony,} or, 
more rarely, they are placed among ivy-clad rocks, ruins, or even 
on the ground. Each nest contains three to four eggs, on which 
the female sits about three weeks, constantly fed by her partner 
during the whole period of incubation. Two weeks later a second 
clutch of eggs is sometimes laid and hatched off whilst the first 
young are in the nest. The power of running would be of little 
use toa young bird hatched at an elevation of fifty feet from the 
ground ; the young Herons are consequently helpess till they are 
sufficiently fledged to perch on the branches of the trees, where 
they are fed by their parents, who themselves perch with the 
facility of the Rook. Indeed, the favourite position of these birds, 
both old and young, is, during a considerable portion of the day, 
on the upper branches of a lofty tree, whither, also, they often 
repair with a booty too large to be swallowed at once. 
By a statute of Henry VIII the taking of Herons in any other 
way than by hawking, or the long bow, was prohibited on a penalty 
of half a mark; and the theft of a young bird from the nest was 
visited with a penalty of ten shillings. 
Not to be acquainted with the noble art of Falconry was deemed 
degrading: so that the saying, ‘ He does not know a Hawk from a 
Heronshaw’, was a common expression of contempt, now corrupted 
into the proverb, ‘ He does not know a Hawk from a handsaw’, 
§ Pennant counted eighty in one tree, 
