28 AT A HERONRY NEAR LONDON 
secure enough on their perch to fold them to 
their sides. On observing this, it struck me 
as curious that these birds do not nest on the 
eround. I wonder if they did so originally, 
and what cause has forced them to build in 
trees—where their nests are so carelessly made. 
Perhaps molestation from some ground enemies 
would be the cause. The glaring sea-green 
colour of the eggs, too, has to be accounted 
for. The note is very peculiar and discord- 
ant. It, reminds one of the “crow, 7onme 
pheasant (see Part II, p. 156), but is louder 
and has a peculiar clangy hollowness about 
it. Close to the heronry, indeed: ung@erame 
was much stagnant water and morass, and 
round about it the lake, which contained sur- . 
face water, occasionally freshened, we were 
told, from the water companys mains, and 
stocked with fish—jack, dace, roach, perch, 
and some rudd. It was just such another 
spot as a wild duckery I had visited the 
year before. As the food of herons consists 
chiefly of fish, together with frogs, toads, 
snakes, mussels and water loving creatures 
