AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 109 



these woods by climbing to their nests, firing of 

 pistols, and other means, at no very distant date, and 

 are now established in an oak-wood in the park, 

 known as Sir John's Wood, planted in 1589, and 

 situated to the north-west of their original haunt. 

 In 1842 the late Lord Spencer sent three young 

 Herons, taken from the nest by one of his game- 

 keepers, as a present to Her Majesty at Buckingham 

 Palace, where they lived for many years : in a letter 

 written by this keeper to the present Lord Spencer 

 (in reply to an enquiry made by the latter on my 

 behalf), he states that, at the date of taking these 

 young birds for the Queen, there were one hundred 

 nests in the Heromy ; he adds that their numbers 

 had greatly decreased by wanton destruction upon 

 the adjoining streams, and Lord Spencer, in a letter 

 bearing date May 29th, 1889, writes : — " The Herons 

 this year have about the usual number of nests, ten, 

 all occupied." To sum up shortly the information 

 given to me about the present denizens of the 

 Heronry at Althorp, I may say that February is the 

 earliest month in which they begin to build ; that it 

 is not positively ascertained whether they rear more 

 than one brood or not, but the keeper assured Lord 

 Spencer at the end of May that the young would not 

 leave the nests for two months, and that if the 

 nestlings fall from the branches, or are blown out of 

 their nests, the old birds do not feed or take any 

 notice of them. 1 shall refer further on to the 

 frequent entries in the Althorp Household Books 

 above mentioned regarding the taking and fattening 

 of young Herons for the table. With reference to 

 the Heromy at Milton, my information is princi- 

 pally derived from Lady Lyveden, Lord Fitzwilliam, 



