66 ON SUSSEX HERONRIES. 



Park Wood, near Brede (Lord George Cavendish), and now in Sowden's 

 Wood, Brede (Mr. Frewen), consisting of about 400 nests upon oak and 

 aspen ; and one at Parham. 



" Concerning the last-named, the owner was good enough to write to 

 me, in July last, as follows : — 'The heronry here consists of 117 nests, up to 

 the 15th of April, mostly made of birch twigs, though they are built on fir 

 trees. After the first batch are able to fly, the old birds repair the nests for 

 a second incubation ; and the young birds one or two years old begin to make 

 new nests, which are not nearly so large as the old nests. They rob the 

 Rooks' nests to build their own ; and frequent battles ensue between the 

 Herons and the Rooks, who also rob the Herons when they can. The 

 ancestors of these Herons are said to have been brought from Coity Castle, 

 in Wales, by the falconer of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, in Queen 

 Elizabeth's time, to Penshurst, from whence they migrated, about sixty or 

 seventy years ago, to Mitchelgrove, near Worthing ; and on the trees being 

 cut there, they came to Parham in 1832.' " 



As regards the Parham one, Mr. Knox has described that colony so well 

 in his ' Ornithological Rambles ' that nothing more need be said. 



In the ' Sussex Archyeological Collections,' vol. xxvii. 1877, pp. 110-116, 

 the Rev. F. H. Arnold, LL.B., has an amusing article on the heronries of the 

 county, with a woodcut of the " Heronry and Rookery at Windmill-Hill 

 Place, the seat of H. M. Curteis, Esq." Here both species dwell in 

 harmony. 



Of Brede, at Udimore, near Rye, the same gentleman says, " The ovnier 

 has kindly supplied the following information : — 



" ' The heronry at Brede is situated in the north-east corner of the Great 

 Sow-den's Wood. About twenty years ago some 400 nests could be counted ; 



