THE HERON. 143 



the last-named county and Tipperary, it is stated that there is a well- 

 stocked heronry at Stradbally Castle ; that herons breed at Barn within 

 three miles of Clonmel, and at Kilcommon demesne.* 



The Kev. Thomas Knox, writing to me in 1837, mentioned a 

 heronry as being in a grove at Mr. Gibbon's, county of Westmeatli ; 

 and at the same time kindly favoured me with the following particulars 

 (communicated to him) in reference to a small heronry in the demesne 

 at Edgeworth's-town {Longford) : — " There are here (season of 1837) 

 about eighteen nests in one clump of beech trees, and a few detached 

 nests, — in all about two dozen. The birds are on the increase, and 

 forming detached colonies. Early in January a' few of the herons 

 return — bke rooks, jackdaws, &c, that build in company — to visit and 

 examine their nests, then go away, and about the first week in February 

 all come to remain for the season. They sometimes now collect in a 

 row on the ground, as if holding a council. A pair driven away last 

 year from the main body commenced a nest in a group of trees about a 

 hundred yards distant, and had it nearly completed the next day. 

 There are one or two left on guard at the nests all day when there are 

 young [or eggs ?] to keep away crows and magpies, which often collect 

 about the nests in numbers, so that the sentinel herons are kept busy 

 driving them off.f The young are frequently blown out of the nest 

 by storms. In the season of 1838, it was observed, that two herons 

 commenced repairing a nest on the 8th of March, and that several did 

 so on the 10th. On the 24th and 30th of April, eggs-shells were 

 seen. There are generally two broods. The young birds, so soon as 

 able, leave the nest and go out on the branches, where they are fed by 

 their parents." 



At Beaulieu, near Drogheda (Louth), is a heronry (about thirty pair 

 breeding in 1849), the owners of which are reputed to be great thieves, 

 and to steal young rooks out of the nest to feed their own young upon 

 them4 In the county of Dublin there is one at Howth Castle (perhaps 

 twenty-five nests), and another, of long standing, at Malahide Castle j — 



* Mr. R. Davis, jun., of Clonmel. 



f Mr. St. John remarks, that in a heronry in the Findhorn the nests are greatly 

 robhed of the eggs by jackdaws, " which live in great numbers on the rocks imme- 

 diately opposite the herons." — Tour in Sutherland, p. 215. 



\ Mr. R. J. Montgomery ; — who obtained eggs from nests there in the middle of 

 Feb. 1849. 



