624 HOMES WITHOUT HAITDS. 



suspend himself by his legs in order to get at a nest below him. 

 That a nest should escape a properly qualified hunter is simply 

 impossible, but to secure the eggs is quite another matter. 



In many cases the nest of the Crow is placed on branches so 

 long and so slender that they will not endure the weight of a 

 smaU boy, much less of a man, and the only method of getting 

 at it is by bending down the branches. But, when the branches 

 are bent, the nest is tilted over, and out fall the eggs, so that the 

 disappointed hunter loses all his time and trouble. 



Possibly this extreme caution may be the result of sad ex- 

 perience, for, although the generality of Crows' nests are placed 

 in the most inaccessible positions, I have seen and taken many 

 which were so easy of attainment that in a very few minutes I 

 had ascended the tree and returned with the eggs. There are 

 generally four or five eggs, although in some exceptional cases 

 six eggs are said to be laid in a single nest. I never saw more 

 than five, though I have examined very many nests. High as 

 the nest of a Crow may be, it is always worthy of an ascent, for, 

 even should it be an old nest and deserted by the original 

 inhabitant, there is always a possibility that it may have been 

 usurped by some hawk, whose beautiful eggs are always con- 

 sidered as prizes. 



There is a splendid British bird, which is becoming scarcer 

 almost yearly, which makes a nest something like that of the 

 crow and rook, but much larger. This is the Hekon (Ardea 

 cinerea), one of the very few large birds which still linger 

 among us. 



On account of its own great size, the Heron makes a very 

 large and very conspicuous nest, built chiefly of sticks and 

 twigs, and placed on the summit of a tree. 



Like the rook, the Heron is gregarious in its nesting, so that 

 a solitary Heron's nest is very seldom seen, though now and 

 then an exception to the general rule is discovered. To watch 

 the manners and ciistoms of this bird is not a very easy task, 

 because the number of heronries in England is very small, and 

 the shy nature of the birds renders them difficult of approach. 

 At Walton Hall, however, the Herons are so fearless, through 

 long-continued impunity, that they will allow themselves to be 



