146 BIRDS OF CHESHIRE. 
of Westminster :—‘ This is the largest of our Heronries, 
and is situate in the “ Duckwood,”’ near the Hall. It 
consists of between forty and fifty nests, nearly all of 
which are built in the tops of very tall willow-trees. 
Some nests are quite isolated, others are in groups of 
various numbers. In eight trees I counted twenty-one 
nests; but owing to the numerous and intricate ditches 
which traverse the whole of the wood like the paths of 
a labyrinth, one has to be satisfied with exploring one- 
half of its dimensions, especially in wet seasons. On 
one occasion when visiting this Heronry, the ditches 
had overflowed their banks to such an extent that the 
only means of getting from place to place, was by laying 
a ladder over the large pools of water. .. . Those 
[nests] that I examined . . . had little or no lining in 
them; one nest was lined with a few dead stems of the 
purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria, Linneeus), which 
grows abundantly in and near the wood; the others 
had nothing but thin sticks broken very short.’ Speak- 
ing of the well-mounted group in the Grosvenor 
Museum, which was obtained from Eaton Park, Mr. 
Newstead says:—‘ When taking the nest and young, 
one of the birds flew away into an adjoining tree, and 
when dislodged it came down in an almost perpen- 
dicular direction. Intervening between it and the 
ground there was a small branch, upon which the bird 
tried to alight; failing this, it hooked its long beak 
over the branch and tried to gain a foothold, but was 
unable to do so. I thought it very remarkable that 
the bird should be able to hang on to an object by 
simply placing its closed beak on the branch, but such 
was the case, and as I kept the birds for many days after 
as living models, I was much interested to see them 
on several occasions use their beaks for supporting 
