38 THE HOME-LIFE OF 



may, the colony whose movements we are about to follow, 

 numbered at least fifty pairs, not one of which was nesting 

 on the ground, all being in the tangled sallow willows. 

 Some, it is true, were httle higher than those placed 

 elsewhere in the marsh on broken reeds, but others were 

 seven feet or more above the swamp. Whether raised 

 one foot or six, these nests in the willows showed a 

 marked dissimilarity, by nature of their better workman- 

 ship, from those among the reeds. The latter were simply 

 a fashioned pile of rush stems resting indiscriminately 

 on numerous broken upright stalks, while the former 

 were built and woven in the forks and branches. They 

 differed much in size, some being of the scantiest 

 description, reminding one of the architecture of a White- 

 throat on a much-magnified scale and without its 

 symmetry ; others were really well formed and bulky, 

 and might have passed for those of the Grey or Common 

 Heron. All were alike, however, in being composed 

 throughout of dead reed stems. 



The colony rose en masse when we were some fifty 

 yards away, and hovered in a flock above the nests, 

 gradually retreating as we approached. A number settled 

 on the tops of the tallest bushes and eyed us motionless 

 from there. The others on wing overhead kept up 

 a constant din with their hoarse and guttural croaks. 



At the time of our visit nearly all the nests had or had 

 had young, but the few still containing eggs for the most 

 part also had a chick or two, often of no mean size 

 (Plate 27). In some of these remaining eggs could be heard 

 the tapping of the youngster's bill inside, signifying that 

 he too would not be long before he made an appearance. 



It was noticeable that there was often much variation 

 in the ages of the chicks in the same nest, the foremost 

 being at times four or five times as great in bulk as the 

 least. In rare cases this may be due to an odd young one 

 returning to the wrong nest, though, from what I 

 subsequently saw, this rarely happens. 



