BIRDS OF GUERNSEY. 149 



Islands, nor have I ever seen anything that bore 



the most remote resemblance to the nest of a Heron. 



Mr. MacCulloch, however, writes to me as follows : 



" The Heron is said to breed occasionally on the 



Amfrocques and others of those small islets north 



of Herm." Mr. Howard Saunders, Col. L 'Estrange, 



and myself, however, visited all these islets this last 



breeding season (1878), and though we saw Herons 



about fishing in the shallow pools left by the tide, 



we could see nothing that would lead us to suppose 



that Herons ever bred there, in fact, though Herons 



have been known to breed on cliffs by the sea ; the 



Amfroques and all the other little wild rocky islets 



are apparently the most unlikely places for Herons 



to breed on. In Guernsey itself, however, it is 



more likely that a few Herons formerly bred, and 



that there was once a small Heronry in the Vale. 



As Mr. MacCulloch writes to me, " There is a 



locality in the parish of St. Samson, at the foot of 



Delancy Hill, in the vicinnry of the marshes near 



the Ivy Castle, formerly thickly wooded with old 



elms, which bears the name of La Heroniere. It 



may have been a resort of Herons, but I am bound 



to say the name may have been derived from a 



family called 'Heron,' now extinct." It seems to 



me also possible that the family derived their 



name from being the proprietors of the only 



Heronry in Guernsey. In the place mentioned by 



Mr. MacCulloch there are still a great many elm 



