NOTES ON HERONRIES. 453 
ton, in Somerset. Within the last few years they shifted their 
quarters from the higher western corner to further down in the 
cover consequent on some of their nesting-trees being blown 
down. I first remember the heronry in Steart Wood, contiguous 
to Pixton Park, where, in the thirties, the young ones were 
annually shot in mid-June by Lord Carnarvon’s friends, and 
singly distributed. They were very good, skinned, stuffed, and 
roasted like hare. As a boy I remember the strawberries and 
cream which were enjoyed upon these occasions. Prior to their 
Steart holding I am reliably told the heronry existed in Shelve- 
acre Wood, a little below Combe, the Elizabethan residence of 
the Sydenham family, whence in 1790 they shifted to Steart 
after St. Barbe Sydenham had some of the trees cut down.” 
2. Halswell (near Bridgwater). —A heronry is said to have - 
been started here about the year 1871, and consisted of forty or 
fifty pairs of birds in 1883 (cf. Zool. 1883, p. 222). In 1901 
from twenty to thirty pairs still bred there, and the colony 
probably still exists. 
3. Brockley Park (ten miles south-west of Bristol).—A heronry 
has existed here for thirty-six years at least, probably for a much 
longer time. This year there were about ten pairs of birds 
occupying the site. 
4. Knowle (near Dunster).— This heronry appears to date 
from about the year 1857, and in 1872 consisted of about thirty 
nests built on larch-trees (cf. Zool. 1872, p. 3265). D’Urban and 
Mathew, in their ‘ Birds of Devon’ (ed. 2, 1895), treating, on 
p- 185, of West Country Heronries, refer to the Knowle colony 
as situated ‘‘on a cone-shaped hill, on which almost every tree 
bears one or more nests.”’ This note probably refers to a date 
several years previous to 1895, as my latest informant from 
Dunster—one who has known the heronry for twenty years— 
states that the numbers now are limited to six or eight pairs, and 
have not varied much since he has known the colony. 
5. Mells Park (Frome).—A small colony consisting of two or 
three pairs has nested in Meleombe Wood, perhaps irregularly, 
during the last twenty years, and if it does not still exist it has 
only vanished during the last year or two. This may be an off- 
shoot from the ancient heronry of Longleat Park, six miles away, 
but just over the Somerset border. 
