301 



ON A NORFOLK HERONRY. 

 By A. H. Pattekson. 



Nine miles to the south-west of Great Yarmouth, on the 

 north side of the River Yare, lies the large but scattered village 

 of Reedham, so named, it is supposed, from the great quantities 

 of reeds that formerly characterized the adjacent lowlands ; and 

 made somewhat important by reason of its being constituted a 

 "junction" by the Great Eastern Railway. It was here, too, 

 that Lodbrog the Dane is said to have been slain by the jealous 

 Berne, the Saxon king's huntsman. 



To me the greatest interest attached to Reedham is the fact 

 that a flourishing colony of Herons is established there, and, 

 after a long-determined intention, I at length paid a hurried visit 

 to it on the hot sultry afternoon of July 15th of the present year. 

 The heronry may be easily seen from the window of the train 

 just as it enters the outskirts of the village, although the un- 

 suspecting might pass and repass it many times without a know- 

 ledge of its existence. At intervals along the route the lumbering 

 flight of a passing Heron may be noticed, or some member of 

 this colony may be seen thigh-deep in a Breydon " run," 

 watching for a lunch of Eels ; and now and again another, 

 scarce troubling to look at the snorting engine ahead of us, 

 stolidly eyes the ditch he stands in, hoping for the coming of 

 some Vole or Stickleback, for he knows the monster to be harm- 

 less as far as he is concerned. 



The Reedham heronry is situated about a mile from the 

 station, on Mr. Stimpson's estate, in a wooded "carr," on rising 

 ground where the marshes commence, and is reached by a round- 

 about roadway, made lively for the pedestrian at this season by 

 the onslaught of flies, which seem to be awaiting his coming in 

 the tall nettles that forefront the thickset hedges, and where the 

 Meadow-Brown butterflies start ahead at his shadow. 



I was fortunate in finding Mr. Pearson, the steward, im- 

 mediately on entering the farm premises, and was made 



