COMMON HERON. 313 



proximity to the heronry has been cut for many years^ so as to 

 avoid disturbing them. The trees in which they build are, 

 for the most part, large oak trees, underneath which nothing 

 grows but brambles. The wood is about eighty acres in 

 extent, and lies on the side of a hill facing the north. The 

 Rye and Finchall turnpike road runs along the top of the 

 wood, and by driving along the road the birds can be plainly 

 seen on their nests. ^^ — December, 1886. 



In reply to Mr. Jeffery, who wrote to the Honble. C. P. 

 F. Berkeley, in June 1890, he informed him that a few 

 Herons roost in the winter in Blackhouse copse, on the Old 

 Park estate, near Bosham, and that about a dozen years ago 

 there was a nest there with young birds, but so many people 

 came to look at them that they deserted the place. After 

 that, a heronry was established at Molecomb, near Good- 

 wood, where there is now a considerable colony. I am 

 informed that at Emsworth, Hants, where a small stream 

 divides it from Sussex, a Heron was shot from which was 

 taken a trout of two pounds weight. As lately as 1853, there 

 were a few nests in Folkington Wood, near the spot now 

 occupied by the Polegate Station of the L. B. & S. C. rail- 

 way. I remember also, when a boy, receiving a Heron^s 

 egg which was taken from a nest in Hough Wood, near 

 Henfield, which, I believe, was the only one built there. 

 This was in the highest tree in the wood. 



The Heron was formerly esteemed a delicacy for the table. 

 In ' The Northumberland Household Book ' we have : '' Item. 

 It is thoughte in like wise that Heronsewes be boughte for 

 my Lordes owne Meas, so they be at XII'^ the pece.^' It 

 may not be generally known that the Heron, when it gets 

 into deep water, swims well, as I have myself seen in the 

 case of one which fell into a pond when wounded. Castings 

 of the Heron, of a substance resembling white semi-pellucid 

 jelly, may often be found about its haunts. 



