COMMON HERON. 147 
their bodies, in situations where it was difticult to get 
a foothold.’ ! 
Not only is the Eaton Heronry the largest in the 
county, but it is the most prosperous, for whereas Mr. 
Newstead found forty or fifty nests, Mr. F. Nicholson, 
writing twenty years previously, estimated the numbers 
as about thirty.2. There was formerly a small heronry 
on the Dee near Eaton, at a spot where the branches of 
two large willow-trees, meeting above the river, formed 
a natural arch, which gave rise to the name of Heron 
Bridge. This was possibly the original site of the 
Eaton colony.! 
The other existing heronry, at Tabley Park, near 
Knutsford, was established in 1871, when a single pair 
nested there. In 1874 there were three nests, and 
by 1881 there were about a dozen.2_ Writing to Mr. 
Newstead in 1893, Mr. G. O. Day said there were then 
about fifteen nests, built in a clump of chestnuts by 
the lake. 
In addition to these, we have records of nine heronries 
which, owing to various causes, are no longer in exist- 
ence. There was one near the pool at Arley, but the 
nesting-trees were felled about the middle of the cen- 
tury, and the birds left the neighbourhood. Another 
existed at Aston, near Frodsham, until quite recently. 
Mr. Nicholson states that it had been established for 
many years, and was referred to by Sir Arthur Aston 
in letters dating back to the first quarter of the cen- 
tury. He adds that for many years twenty had been 
the average number of nests, but Mr. Newstead was 
informed that they had dwindled to about a dozen in 
1888, and that two years later the birds ceased to build. 
' Proc. Chester Soc. Nat. Science and Lit., No. iv. pp. 226-243. 
* Man. City News, May 16, 1874. Man. Guardian, Dec. 28, 1881. 
