HERONS. 13 



Supremest place of the great English kings, 



can ever be so considered. 



Before I conclude this notice of herons, it may 

 be as well to mention that they breed early in the 

 spring, probably beginning to lay their eggs 

 about the middle of March, as on the 8th of 

 April I found discarded egg-shells under their 

 nests. The cry of the young birds is very pe- 

 culiar, resembling the sound of distant hammering. 

 I have only heard it when the old bird was 

 driven from the nest, and it arises probably from 

 cold or hunger. The affection of the parent birds 

 for their young is very great, and I have elsewhere, 

 recorded the fact of a young heron having been 

 removed, at night, to a place at some miles' dis- 

 tance, and put into a walled garden, where it was 

 discovered by the old birds early the next morning, 

 and was regularly fed by them till it was able to 

 fly away. As there were probably other young 

 ones in the nest to be fed, this fact shews not 

 only the affection, but the perseverance of the 

 parent birds. It is not improbable that the young 

 are fed from the partly digested contents of the 

 stomachs of the old birds, as, although I have 

 repeatedly watched to see their arrival from dis- 

 tances, where they had evidently gone in search 

 of food during the breeding season, I have never 

 yet observed anything in their bills. Indeed 

 the stomach of the heron is so capacious, that 



