384 - THE HERON. 



a good heronry near the place, I should not have made the change. 

 The draining of the ponds did not seem to lessen the number of rats 

 in the brook : but soon after the herons had settled here to breed, 

 the rats became extremely scarce; and now I rarely see one in the 

 place, where formerly I could observe numbers sitting on the stones 

 at the mouth of their holes, as soon as the sun had gone down below 

 the horizon. I often watch the herons on the banks of some other 

 store-ponds with feelings of delight; and nothing would grieve me 

 more than to see the lives of these valuable and ornamental birds 

 sacrificed to the whims and caprice of man. 



I know, and freely avow, that the herons will catch fish (especially 

 eels), whenever those fish frequent the shallow water; still these birds 

 make ample amends for their little depredations, by preventing the 

 increase of rats and frogs. Little, indeed, must be those depreda- 

 tions : for fishermen are allowed to come hither, during the summer, 

 in unrestricted numbers, and the herons have their nests in the trees 

 which hang over the water; still there is a most plentiful supply of 

 fish. 



Up to the year 1826, the heron was a wandering, unprotected bird 

 in this part of Yorkshire. Five or six nests were seen on a willowed 

 island in the lake at Nostell Priory, and a solitary pair tried to rear 

 their young in a neighbouring wood at Wooley Park. And these 

 were all in the district. But idle boys and plundering vagabonds 

 have prevented their increase ; so that, at the present time, one nest, 

 or two at furthest, are all that remain at Nostell Priory. There are 

 a few herons at Scarthingwell. 



I always hoped that when I got my park wall well finished, I should 

 be able to afford these interesting birds an asylum at Walton Hall. 

 My hopes have been realised. The whole of the park wall was com- 

 plete in the summer of the year 1826, and, in the following spring, I 

 counted six heron's nests in the enclosure. The old birds had chosen 

 some Scotch firs, which bordered the water on the sloping ground, for 

 their incubation, and in course of time they made a choice of oaks 

 and sycamores bordering on each side of the water, for a similar 

 purpose. 



The new colony of these fine birds throve until an unfortunate in- 

 trusion of the woodfeller had well-nigh robbed me of it for ever. He 



