146 AltDEIMS. 



much called into requisition for the same purpose. The attitudes of 

 the bird, however, if not surpassing those of the rope-dancer in grace, 

 certainly do so in grotesqueness. 



A colony of herons, as I have been credibly informed, built regularly 

 on the protend in a low stony islet at lough Achery, co. of Down — a nar- 

 row river-like sheet of water about a mile in length — until about half a 

 century ago, when they were beaten away by black-headed gulls (Lams 

 ridibundus), which coveted their isle as a breeding haunt. The conflict 

 between the two species was said to have been very great, and if a 

 heron afterwards appeared in the vicinity, the colony of gulls sallied 

 forth to attack it. I had the unexpected pleasure very recently (1849) 

 of finding, in Mr. Templeton's journal, the following entry on this 

 subject: — " June 29, 1808. The Eev. J. Dubourdieu relates that, on 

 an island in a small lake, called lough Achery, about three or four 

 miles south-east of Lisburn, herons, contrary to their usual custom, 

 had bred on the ground ; but about the year 1803 a number of black- 

 headed gulls drove off the herons, and have continued to breed there 

 since." They did so for several years after that note was made, to the 

 number of many hundreds, their nests almost covering the whole islet. 

 From a person who visited the lake in July 1845, to make inquiry 

 respecting its ornithology, I learned, that for at least a dozen years 

 previously the gulls had not bred there. This was attributed by some 

 persons to the persecution of grey crows (C. comix), which breed on 

 another islet of the lake that is wooded. Although this might be 

 considered only proper retributive justice, the absence of the gulls is 

 probably owing to a more potent cause ; — to persecution by being 

 often fired at and otherwise disturbed. The presence of a boat, too — 

 which was kept constantly on the lake — would much annoy them. 



Sir WilUam Jardine has remarked respecting herons : — " of their 

 breeding on the ground we have the fact stated, but we cannot trace it 

 to anything authentic."* I was therefore highly gratified by hearing, 

 when in the island of Islay in January 1849, that there is a small but 

 long-existing heronry there on the ground, consisting annually of about 

 a dozen nests. On the 15th of the month I visited this heronry, which 

 is not more than three miles from Ardimersy Cottage, where I was 

 staying. It was difficult of discovery, from being amid brushwood 

 and much broken rocky ground of similar character ; and I might have 

 been long hunting for the exact site, had not six or seven herons, by 



* Brit. Birds, vol. iii. p. 125. 



