138 WILD LIFE ON A NORFOLK ESTUARY 



and altogether different from that heavy, lumbering flight 

 one notices as fishing birds move from one Breydon " drain " 

 to another, or when they are lazily winging their way over 

 the marsh ditches. The familiar "frank ! " was repeatedly 

 uttered, and an occasional deeper bass " trouk ! " betrayed 

 anxiety and a note of warning. Some nest had probably 

 and unwittingly been bereft of a juvenile tenant. Presently 

 we found our surmise correct, for we came across a young 

 heron, full-feathered but unable to fly, who at our approach, 

 scared and excited, played a clumsy game of leap-frog with 

 the bracken he as often blundered through. We let him 

 go ; his parents would have found it awkward to drop 

 through the tangled branches to come and console him, but 

 there can be no doubt he will find enough food thrown down 

 to him, perhaps unintentionally, to keep him going until he 

 dares venture out to the neighbouring ditches to hunt for 

 himself. 



Only a few young herons remained in their nests ; the 

 majority, indeed, sat or stood just outside them. We noted 

 that they were well-feathered, and all but ready to follow 

 their elders to their daily war upon the frogs, voles, and 

 fishes. 



But such bundles of faggots were these high -perched 

 nests ! Some of them would well-nigh have filled a wheel- 

 barrow. On one large ash tree there must have been over 

 a dozen, and the whole ninety and more of them were so 

 closely built that you might have sat in the central one, and 

 easily have pitched its eggs into the furthermost nest. And 

 this is the heronry, in the very wood wherein, three hundred 

 years ago, Sir Thomas Browne also saw the spoonbills nest- 

 ing ! I felt like taking off my hat, for the place seemed 

 hallowed by associations, and venerable in its history. 



The herons are looked for every year, " reg'lar as a clock," 

 on February 1st ; their call is heard for the first time, the 

 bailiff assured me, on that date at about eight in the even- 

 ing ; so punctual are they on their return. On April ist 

 young ones are heard "twipping" in the nests. In early 

 summer the young ones keep much in the vicinity of the 

 wood, using that side most sheltered from the wind. The 

 frogs, water-voles, sticklebacks, and other creatures in the 

 neighbouring moist places then pay heavy toll. At pairing- 



