COMMON HERON. 311 



nest : — " The lower and external parts were composed of 

 sticks from the larch and fir, the material becoming finer 

 towards the interioTj which was lined throughout with very 

 thin birch twigs, closely matted together. It was much wider 

 than that of the Eoot, and shallower in proportion." I visited 

 this heronry in May 1876, and then there were just one 

 hundred nests, almost all on fir trees — a few on high birches. 

 A year or two after this, a tremendous gale blew away many of 

 these nests soon after the young were hatched, and numbers 

 were destroyed. The heronry is still prospering, and strictly 

 preserved. Mr. Harting, writing in 1873, gives in his 

 'British Heronries^ (p. 3) the following account of the 

 origin of that at Parham : — " The ancestors of these Herons 

 are said to have been brought from Coity Castle, in Wales, 

 by the falconer of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, in Queen 

 Elizabeth^s time, to Penshurst, whence they migrated, about 

 sixty or seventy years ago, to Mitchelgrove, near Worthing, 

 and on the trees there being cut, they went to Parham, in 

 1833. A portion of the park of Mitchelgrove is in the parish 

 of Angmering ; and in Horsfield's ' History of Sussex ' (vol. 

 ii. pp. 140-1) may be found the following : — ' It is very 

 interesting to observe their early motions during the time of 

 their incubation. As soon as the morning dawns, they are 

 seen to congregate, and soon divide themselves into three 

 distinct bodies. One fiight takes an eastern direction, and 

 spreads itself along the course of the river Adur ; another 

 takes the upper part of the Arun, and pursues its course 

 toward the Wildbrook at Amberley ; the third and largest 

 flock take a western direction ; and while some drop along 

 the lower line of the Arun, others proceed to the Manhood, 

 or perhaps to Hayling Island. Although they start together, 

 they do not return in the same order, but singly, and at 

 different periods, according as they have been successful in 

 the pursuit of food.' " 



