148 BIRDS OF CHESHIRE. 
The gamekeeper on the estate informs us that numbers 
of Herons still frequent the locality. In 1857 a pair 
of Herons chose some firs on the margin of the marsh 
at Burton, in Wirral, for a nesting-site. Ten years later 
there were about twenty nests, but here, as at Arley 
and Aston, the birds were constantly persecuted by the 
Rooks and Jackdaws, and in 1874 only two broods 
were hatched out. In 1880 a heavy gale, which blew 
down several of the trees, was the death-blow of the 
colony, and the birds have not nested there since that 
date. It is said that the heronry which formerly 
existed near the Hall at Carden, near Broxton, was 
destroyed on account of the effluvium arising from 
the putrid fish-refuse. About 1850, the late Lord 
Combermere had the heronry at Combermere Abbey 
destroyed on account of the havoc which the birds 
wrought amongst the fish."? 
In the early part of the century there was a heronry 
near the Old Man Pool in the Park at Dunham Massey. 
There is no record of the origin of this heronry; but 
owing to persecution and the fact that some of the 
nesting-trees were blown down, the birds left the 
locality in 1838, and after an ineffectual attempt to 
settle at Tatton, migrated to Arley.’ Birds still fre- 
quently visit the Pool at Dunham Massey. At Hooton, 
a heronry, perhaps the oldest in Cheshire, was destroyed 
by the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal 
about the year 1890. Mr. Nicholson says that the 
birds abandoned the place in 1870, but returned in 
1874, when there were six nests. At the time of its 
demolition, Mr. Newstead states that the average 
1 Man. City News, May 16, 1874. Man. Guardian, Dec. 28, 1881. 
2 Proc. Chester Soc. Nat. Science and Int., No. iv. pp. 226-248. 
3 J. E. Smith, Man. City News, May 16, 1874. 
