THE HAUNTS OF COOT AND HERON 95 



hind the spot on which we are seated the land slopes 

 gradually upwards till it rises into a bold, craggy 

 ridge two miles away. Then it drops down again, 

 not now gradually, but suddenly and almost pre- 

 cipitously, forming a deep, narrow valley, shut in 

 on the other side by a similar formation. The 

 silver firs which have grown here have been well 

 protected, and they rise to a great height, as they 

 sometimes do in the lower valleys of the Alps in 

 similar situations ; and here, too, they are straight 

 and shapely from the ground upwards. On the 

 tops of the highest trees there are about half a dozen 

 riests ; and the sight as seen across the valley from 

 either side in the breeding season is not soon for- 

 gotten. The tall, gaunt forms of the birds, perched 

 like sentinels on the nests or branches, or occasionally 

 arriving and taking flight amid a chorus of solemn 

 croaks, the young in the great fiat nests — ^not seated 

 as young birds usually are, but also standing, the 

 stilt-like legs supporting bodies covered with long 

 loose down — all combine to give a peculiar air of 

 old-world stateliness to the picture, which is very 

 striking. No wonder the heron was a bird held in 

 favour by our ancestors ! The heron begins to sit 

 about the end of March, and the nest is always built 

 on a tree of considerable altitude, and generally 

 near the top ; it is constructed of twigs principally. 

 From three to five eggs, of a blue-green colour, are 

 laid, and the young remain long in the nest after 

 they are hatched out. 



Two more of the birds come now over the hill. 

 They fly close together, but separate as they descend, 

 closely examining the while the lake-shore in wide 

 leisurely circles of flight. They have chosen for their 



