OF THE BIRDS MENTIONED 229 
Found: Widely distributed but local. Heronries few 
now. Habits: Store food (fishes, frogs, etc.) in the 
gullet to take to the young. Nest in communities 
(heronries) like rooks, the birds returning to the same 
heronries year after year. Feed (often at night) in marshes 
and shallow waters, standing motionless for long periods 
watching for fish, etc. Very voracious. Note: A loud 
and harsh ‘quawck’ (something like peacock, but 
clangy). Food: Fish (old and fry), frogs, toads, snakes, 
slugs, worms, mice, etc. (Sometimes rats). Sometimes 
well-fed, sometimes starving. Not migratory. Nests 
in March. Situated: High in the tops of large trees 
(firs and oaks favourites) in sheltered woods, often over 
or near water or morass, on high cliffs, if near the sea. 
Various sizes but mostly about 3 feet across, and 1 foot 
high, loosely constructed, careless (like pigeons) of 
disordered appearance, flat on the top. Same nest may 
be reconstructed year after year, and so gets larger. 
Made of: Sticks chiefly, lined with some wool, rushes, 
etc., Second nests: Two broods yearly. Eggs: Pale 
dull sea-green. Four or five. 
5. JAY 
(Pages 93-6) 
Garrulus (and corvus) glandarius. Lat., garrulus, 
chattering, etc. Glans, glandis in Lat., means an acorn, 
and may refer to the bird’s love for acorns. Jay of 
