GANNET — HEKON. 183 



THE GATTNET. 



Sida hassana. 

 The Gannet, or Solan Goose^ is an accidental visitor from 

 the coast. An advilt bird was seen passing- over Weston-on- 

 tlie-Green, on the 14th October, 1838^ and it is stated by the 

 Messrs. Matthews to have been met with also on other 

 occasions. [Zoologist, p. 2634.) Mr. C. E. Ruck-Keene has 

 a Gannet, which was shot at Oxford in 1843. Mr. Beesley 

 has furnished me with the following- extract from the Banbury 

 Guardian, entered in his note-book for the 25th February^ 

 1845. ' ^ flock of Gannets passed over the town — one fomid 

 next morning-.'' I am informed that another, in the dark 

 immature plumage, was shot in the Cherwell meadows, near 

 Banbury, in 1877. 



THE HEROK". I / h 



Ardea cinerea. 

 The Heron is a resident, breeding- in a few spots only. In 

 Tar Wood, the property of Mr. E. W. Harcourt, near Stanton 

 Harcourt, there is an old-established heronry. Mr. Harcourt 

 informs me that he has known it all his life, and that his 

 g-randfather (who I believe was born about the year 1757) 

 told him that it had always existed. During- Mr. Harcourt^s 

 own knowledg-e of Tar Wood the nests have varied from 

 thirty to sixty annually. When I visited the wood in April, 

 1888, I learned with regret that the Herons, which had been 

 much disturbed, and, notwithstanding Mr. Harcourt^s en- 

 deavours, had been considerably shot down at their feeding- 

 grounds, were not breeding that season, nor had they done so 

 for the last two years, although a few birds revisited the old 

 nests a day or two previously. The woodman told me that in 

 1 88 1 or 1882 he counted as many as twenty-six occupied 

 nests, and it is confidently hoped that the Herons may return 

 to breed another year. The nests which I saw were placed in 

 the small branches of rather low oak trees, not more than 



