THE ZooLocist—NovemBER, 1872. 3315 
counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. Thrigby and Norton Hall must be added 
to the list of extinct heronries in Norfolk, both these localities being in 
that county, though by some accident they have been placed under the 
head of Suffolk in Mr. Harting’s paper. The ownership of the celebrated 
Diddlington heronry is also incorrectly given; it is now the property of 
Mr. Tyssen Amhurst, the present possessor of the estate, which formerly 
belonged to the late Colonel Wilson, afterwards Lord Berners. Many 
interesting details respecting this and other Norfolk heronries will be 
found in Stevenson’s ‘ Birds of Norfolk,’ vol. ii. p. 130. The colonies of 
herons which at various periods have settled at Taverham, Cossey, and 
Kimberley, are believed to have been all offshoots from the heronry which, 
after many vicissitudes, is now seated at Earlham, near Norwich. This 
parent heronry was last year computed by my son, Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., 
to consist of twenty-six nests. An instance of a small colony of herons on 
the north coast of Norfolk occurred (as I am informed) about the year 1840, 
in the parish of Weybourne, where five nests were built on low trees, but 
were deserted in consequence of being plundered the following year by 
some fishermen, who used the young herons for the ignoble purpose of bait 
for their lines. The extinct heronries at Reedham, and at the adjacent 
parish of Claxton, were formerly also nesting-places of the spoonbill, as is 
recorded by Sir Thomas Browne, who died in- 1682, and who also speaks of 
the spoonbills as still breeding, at the time when he wrote, at Trimley, in 
Suffolk. Sir Thomas mentions them as “building upon the tops of high 
trees,” but does not state whether those which formed the colony at 
Trimley resided ina heronry. I visited the parish of Trimley last year, 
but could not find any tradition remaining of a heronry having existed 
there. I may add that the heronry at Blackheath, in the parish of Friston, 
~ near Aldborough, in Suffolk, which Mr. Harting alludes to as formerly in 
existence, was still in full prosperity when I visited it last year: it is a 
large colony, and I was assured by a resident on the spot that it contained 
as many as two hundred nests, which are scattered over a large wood of 
rather low Scotch firs overlooking the River Alde: this figure may be an 
exaggeration, but the number of nests which I saw in the portion of the 
wood which [ visited was very considerable.—J. H. Gurney. 
PS. — Since writing the above I have been informed of three small 
additional colonies of herons in Norfolk — one at Stokesby, near Acle; the 
other two in the respective parishes of Westacre and East Walton, in 
West Norfolk.—J. H. G. 
Heronry in Suffolk.—On the right bank of the Blythe, between Blyth- 
borough and Walberswick, there is a small heronry, in a clump of tall firs, 
‘consisting of about half-a-dozen pairs, on the property of Sir John Blois. 
This is not included: in Mr. Harting’s list —Henry Durnford ; October 1, 
1872. 
