16 AKDEID^E 



heronries, but later in exposed localities, and the young are 

 able to leave the nest in May, after which a second clutch 

 is often hatched. It would appear that the majority of 

 birds in a heronry commence to incubate much about the 

 same time, so that nearly all the young of the first broods 

 are hatched out together. This is borne out by the fact 

 that the ground beneath the nesting-trees may be seen 

 thickly strewn with empty egg-shells early in the month 

 of March. The young are helpless creatures for several 

 days after they are hatched. In August, adults and young 

 leave the heronries for the season, returning year after year 

 to the same breeding-haunts. 



In Great Britain and Ireland the Heron is still a plenti- 

 ful breeding- species, so much so that it would be beyond 

 the limits of this work to specify the names of the counties 

 in which heronries are to be found. It may, however, 

 be mentioned that in addition to the mainland, islands off 

 the western sea-board of Scotland and Ireland accommodate 

 heronries. 



Geographical distribution. Abroad, the Heron breeds 

 over the greater part of Southern and Central Europe, its 

 northern range hardly extending beyond the latitudes of 

 our own Isles. Eastward, it breeds in Temperate and 

 Tropical Asia, but to the African Continent as well as to 

 Australia it is only a winter visitor. Exceptionally it has 

 wandered to Iceland and Greenland. 



DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERS. 



PLUMAGE. Adult male nuptial. Forehead, white ; top 

 of head and long crest-plumes, bluish-black ; cheeks, throat 

 and neck, white, the last being streaked in front by two 

 dark bluish-grey lines ; at the root of the neck is a tuft of 

 long white feathers ; back, wings, tail, slate-colour ; primaries, 

 blackish ; breast 1 and abdomen, greyish-white. 



Adult female nuptial. The markings are similar to 

 those of the male, but the shades are duller, and the head 

 and neck-plumes are shorter. 



Adult winter, male and female. Similar to the nuptial 

 plumage. 



Immature, male and female. Entire plumage chiefly 

 light slate-colour, the neck being of a paler shade ; head- 

 plumes much shorter than in the adult ; neck-plumes absent. 



1 All members of the Heron family possess powdery tufts of decom- 

 posed feathers along the breast and sides. 



