THE ZooLocist—OcToBER, 1872. 3261 
British Heronries. 
By J. E. Hartine, Esq., F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c. 
To the archeologist, no less than to the naturalist, a heronry is 
always an object of interest. The sight of a heron reminds one of 
a hawk, and recals to mind the days when our ancestors rode 
forth with hooded falcons on their fists, and all the accompaniments 
of bells and jesses, gloves and leashes, lure and cadge, to fly at 
the largest, and withal the most crafty, of British wildfowl. 
This ancient pastime has marked the heron as a bird of no 
common interest, and has consequently invested his dwelling-place 
with a charm which attaches to that of no other species, unless 
perhaps to the eyrie of his enemy, the noble falcon. 
Fortunate are those who can boast the ownership of a heronry, 
and watch from their casement the great gray forms of the herons 
passing silently to and fro, like some old retainers attached to the 
family for generations, and inseparably connected with it. The 
man who would wilfully cut down and destroy a heronry would 
surely commit a crime. He would deserve, like the evil-doers of 
old, to be turned into a bird of ill-omen, and haunt the scene of 
his evil deed bewailing it for all time. Let us hope there are none 
such. 
Modern statistics would certainly seem to show that heronries in 
Great Britain, instead of decreasing in number, as some have 
supposed, are steadily on the increase, and this in spite of the 
persecution which the birds are subjected to at the hands of fish- 
preservers and prowling gunners. 
Many doubtless will be surprised to learn that within the limits 
of the British Islands the existence of more than two hundred 
heronries has been lately established. Some months ago, through 
the medium of that widely-circulating journal the ‘Field, I 
published a list of all the heronries with which I was then 
acquainted,* and invited the co-operation of the readers of that 
journal in adding to and perfecting the list. The result has been 
the receipt of letters from all parts of the country, enabling me to 
make some considerable additions; and as no information has 
reached me during the past three months, it may be presumed that 
the list is pow as complete as it is at present possible to make it. 
* See the ‘ Field’ of February 17th and March 9th. 
SECOND SERIES—VOL. VII. 38D 
