HERON. 131 



from their high estate, but whilst the former, unhappily, 

 meets no quarter at the hands of the gamekeeper, and 

 ranks with the crow in the list of feathered vermin, the 

 heron still retains a something of its former prestige, 

 which, in the breeding season, at least, ensures it protec- 

 tion, a heronry, at the present day, being still regarded 

 by most persons as a coveted possession. 



Of this species Sir Thomas Browne* says, "the great 

 number of rivers, rivulets, and plashes of water makes 

 herns and herneries to abound in these parts; young 

 herns being esteemed a festival dish, and much desired 

 by some palates ;" but at that time, and indeed until 

 within the last forty or fifty years, herons did not build 

 exclusively in lofty trees, seeking the vicinity of man's 

 dwellings, and gathering together in colonies like the 

 rooks, but were scattered, in pairs, over the Fens and 

 Broads, where their nests were placed sometimes on a 

 loffcy alder in a carr, sometimes on the dwarf sallow 

 and alder bushes in the marsh, or were hidden like those 

 of the bittern amongst the reeds and sedges. In many 

 such localities the nature of the soil must in itself have 

 afforded sufficient protection the swamp presenting an 

 impenetrable barrier against all human depredators; 



now a-days in many places the common name for Ardea cinerea, 

 and seems as if it could be hardly anything else than the Sanskrit 

 'hansa.' If so ' heronshaw,' abbreviated to 'heron' and 'hern/ 

 is naturally from the same root." Again in Taylor's MS. appendix 

 to Forby the derivation of heronsewe is given as from " the 0. E. 

 sewe a dish (whence sewer, one who serves up the dinner), hence 

 heronsewe may be a heron fit for eating, young and tender." 

 " I wot not tellen of his strange sewes, 

 Ne hir swans, ne hir heronsetyes." CHAUCER. 

 * Writing of the spoonbill breeding in Norfolk, Sir Thomas 

 Browne states " that they formerly built in the Hernery at Claxton 

 and Reedham, now at Trimley, in Suffolk;" but, as far I can 

 ascertain, no heronry now exists in any of those localities, and, with 

 the exception of the latter, they have probably been abandoned for 

 many years, 

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