ARDEID&. 367 
THE COMMON HERON. 
ARDEA CINEREA, Linnzus. 
This bird is no longer protected as in the days of Falconry, but 
it is still generally distributed throughout the British Islands; and 
in England the number of its colonies has suffered no diminution, 
though many of them are seriously reduced in size as compared 
with former times. In Scotland there never were many large 
heronries, but small ones are scattered over the greater part of the 
mainland as well as some of the outlying islands. The latter remark 
applies to Ireland, where, however, there are also some important 
assemblages in trees in cos. Cork, Waterford, Dublin, Down, 
Donegal, Mayo and Galway. 
The Heron sometimes visits the Fzroes and Iceland, and a young 
bird was picked up dead in South Greenland in 1856. On the coast 
of Norway it ranges to 68° N. lat., though it does not reach beyond 
57° in Sweden and Russia ; while southward it is found, in suitable 
localities, over the greater part of Europe, and considerable numbers 
breed in colonies in the marshes of Northern and Central Italy, the 
valley of the Danube, and Southern Russia. In France there is one 
