174 tHE COMMON HERON 



During a great portion of the year the Heron is a wanderer, 

 have frequently seen it at least fifty miles distant from the neares 

 heronry ; but when it has discovered a spot abounding in fooc 

 it repairs thither day after day for a long period. 



In the month of January, if mild, but as a rule in Februan 

 Herons show a disposition to congregate, and soon after repair t 

 their old-established breeding-places, called Heronries. These ai 

 generally lofty trees, firs or deciduous trees in parks, or even i 

 groves close by old family mansions. One at Kilmorey, by Loc 

 Gilphead, has long been frequented, though within a hundre 

 yards of the house. The nests, huge masses of sticks, a yar 

 across, lined with a little grass, and other soft materials, are place 

 near each other, as many, sometimes, as a hundred in a colony,^ oi 

 more rarely, they are placed among ivy-clad rocks, ruins, or eve 

 on the ground. Each nest contains three to four eggs, on whic 

 the female sits about three weeks, constantly fed by her partne 

 during the whole period of incubation. Two weeks later a secon 

 clutch of eggs is sometimes laid and hatched off whilst the firs 

 young are in the nest. The power of running would be of littl 

 use to a young bird hatched at an elevation of fifty feet from th 

 ground ; the young Herons are consequently helpess tiU they ai 

 sufficiently fledged to perch on the branches of the trees, wher 

 they are fed by their parents, who themselves perch with th 

 facility of the Rook. Indeed, the favourite position of these bird; 

 both old and young, is, during a considerable portion of the daj 

 on the upper branches of a lofty tree, whither, also, they ofte 

 repair with a booty too large to be swallowed at once. 



By a statute of Henry VIII the taking of Herons in any othe 

 way than by hawking, or the long bow, was prohibited on a penalt; 

 of half a mark ; and the theft of a young bird from the nest wa 

 visited with a penalty of ten shOlings. 



Not to be acquainted with the noble art of Falconry was deemei 

 degrading : so that the saying, ' He does not know a Hawk from 

 Heronshaw ', was a common expression of contempt, now comiptei 

 into the proverb, ' He does not know a Hawk from a handsaw '. 



* Pennant counted eighty in one tree. 



