348 THE HERON 



how upwards of twenty nests, in course of building, or containing 

 from one to six eggs, were seen on a single morning in beds of high 

 reeds. It must not be supposed that all nests are placed in the water : 

 on the contrary, it will also breed on boughs of recently pollarded 

 willows, and in such cases the nests look not unlike those of wood- 

 pigeons, except that there are generally a few rushes in them. 1 The 

 late Herr Hocke states that on some of the larger ponds of North 

 Germany it might be said formerly to have bred in colonies, and 

 mentions one pond of about fifty acres on which in the sixties some 

 forty pairs were breeding. 



Some of the nesting-sites which have been recorded are, however, 

 still more remarkable. Thus Gloger records one in an old magpie's 

 nest : others are said to have been found in hedges and thick bushes, 

 while Chernel mentions one found built on to a blackheaded - gull's 

 nest in a gullery. Extraordinarily large clutches have also been met 

 with exceptionally : thus nests with 10 and 12 eggs are on record. 

 They are laid on consecutive days, and Hocke's observations tend to 

 show that the period of incubation is shorter even than the 16 or 

 17 days which Naumann assigned to it. The presence of these 

 birds on any particular piece of water may generally be detected by 

 the very peculiar and characteristic note of the male, which is uttered 

 during the day when the weather is dull, as well as at nightfall, and 

 bears some resemblance to that of the common-bittern. Naumann 

 writes it as "pumm " or "pumb," Hocke as "prump," Lilford as a deep 

 guttural cough, " ough" and H. M. Wallis as " waugh-h-h" After listen- 

 ing to it for some time in Friesland, it seemed to resemble the noise 

 made by the impact of a heavy mallet on a pile more closely than any- 

 thing else. 2 One hears the thud and can almost see the mallet being 

 raised for the next stroke, till three strokes have been given ; then the 

 workman pauses for a while, and again the sound travels over the 

 water. Wallis compares the sound when heard at a distance to the 



1 See Ibis, 1902, p. 81. 



! J. H. Gurney (Zoologist, 1895, p. 98) compares it to the sound made by a paviour ramming 

 stones, or the distant barking of a dog. 



