NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



in Scotland and Ireland. Norfolk claims the largest 

 number of heronries among English counties, boasting 

 as it does of no less than fourteen of these curious 

 nesting-places, while Yorkshire and Devon can count 

 seven each. There are, indeed, few English shires 

 which are not able to point to one or two of these 

 ancient breeding resorts still in occupation ; even near 

 London we have heronries at Richmond Park, Wan- 

 stead, and Osterley Park. In James I.'s time, and 

 even later, a heronry existed within the Bishop of 

 London's domain at Fulham, and it is remarkable 

 that spoonbills, now among the rarest of British birds, 

 were to be seen nesting at the same place and in the 

 same reign. 



Herons, of course, from being expert fishermen, are 

 a good deal out of favour with preservers of trouting 

 streams. Although they devour at times frogs, toads, 

 water-voles, and the young of wild duck, teal, moor- 

 hens, and other waterfowl, their main dietary consists 

 of fish. It is therefore to the general credit of anglers 

 and fish preservers that so few of these voracious birds 

 are shot during the course of each season. As a matter 

 of fact, we believe that most anglers have a sentimental 

 affection towards the great grey heron, spite of its 

 delinquencies. Even the hardened trout angler, in a 

 country where streams are too often flogged to death, 

 and decent, quiet fishing is hard to find, loves to see 

 the great bird flapping leisurely across the landscape 

 towards sunset, on its way homeward to some chosen 

 resting-place. That the heron is really and truly a 

 great devourer of fish is undeniable. The toll he takes 

 each day from the district in which he is established 

 must be very considerable. Years ago the stomach of 

 a heron found dead by the water of Badenoch, near 

 Drumlanford House, Scotland, was found to contain 



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