COMMON HERON. 149 
number of nests in the colony was about twenty. A 
few Herons used to nest some years ago in the Marsh 
Plantation at Ince; but, though many birds still fre- 
quent the neighbourhood, they have not bred there 
lately. An island in the pool in Oulton Park was 
tenanted by a number of Herons until about the year 
1850, when the birds deserted the locality.’ 
As Herons may often be seen fishing in the meres 
and pools during the breeding season, there can be 
little doubt that odd pairs occasionally nest in secluded 
woods. Byerley mentions that a pair nested at Newton- 
cum-Larton.2 In 1888, a brood was reared in a wood 
at Balderton, near Chester, and at one time a pair used 
to nest in the beech-wood in Alderley Park.2 There 
was a nest in a fir near Tatton Mere, which was occupied 
for many years,! and Mr. Nicholson informs us that 
two or three isolated pairs bred on the Tatton Estate 
in 1896. Birds have also nested at Adlington within 
recent years, and some time ago a single nest was found 
in a covert in Lyme Park. 
The diet of the Heron is very varied, and is by no 
means restricted to fish, the bird readily eating small 
mammals and even young waterfowl. ‘Some pellets 
from the Eaton heronry that Mr. Newstead examined, 
consisted almost entirely of the fur of rats, although, 
curiously enough, no traces of bones were discernible. A 
bird that was taken from a nest at Hooton and kept in 
captivity for two years, subsisted almost altogether upon 
animal food, and never had any fish during that period. 
This bird would eat as many as five rats at a single 
meal, and, except when very hungry, always repaired 
1 Man. City News, May 16, 1874. Man. Guardian, Dec. 28, 1881. 
? Proc. Chester Soc. Nat. Science and Lit., No. iv. pp. 226-243. 
° Byerley, op. cit. p. 18, 
