BIRDS OF THE HUMBER DISTRICT. 101 



GRALLATORES. ARDEIDA. 



155. ARDEA CINEREA, Linnaeus. Common Heron. 



Provincial. Heron-sue, Heron-shawe. 



Not uncommon in our Lincolnshire marshes, but 

 much more numerous in the autumn, when they 

 appear in small family parties in the marshes, either 

 fishing in the drains or on the Humber flats, follow- 

 ing the receding tide to feed on various crustaceans and 

 small fish left in the pools of salt water. They remain 

 all through the winter in the marshes, leaving again 

 in February for their breeding-stations. A few old 

 birds coming from great distances daily, or rather 

 nightly, visit our drains and streams during the sum- 

 mer months. 



In two papers in the ' Field' newspaper for Febru- 

 ary 17th and March 9th, 1872, Mr. J. E. Harting 

 gives a list, as far as he can ascertain, of the Heronries 

 existing at the present time in Great Britain. 



In Lincolnshire he enumerates: "Two near 

 Spalding, one at Donington, one in Skellingthorpe 

 Wood near Lincoln, and one at Swanpool; one at old 

 Cressy Hall*, of which Pennant has given a descrip- 

 tion. In addition to these, there were formerly one 

 at Manby, near Brigg, belonging to Lord Yarborough, 



Willughby and the antiquarian Gough, that Cranes should have 

 nested in the Fens so late as the end of the 18th century, just 

 previous to the drainage and enclosure of the West Fen. 



* u The Heronries at Spalding, Donington, and Cressy Hall 

 are now extinct." 



