June 26, 1891
England.
(no 6)
Chester - quacking descended into the woods on our
right. [delete]The[/delete] Teal are also said to breed here but we
did not see [delete]it[/delete] any.
  These swampy woods harbor a heronry which is
carefully protected and fostered by the Duke and
to visit which was the chief object of our trip to-day.
As we were approaching several old Herons came in
from distant fishing grounds along the more
retired reaches of the Dee and circling once or
twice swept down majestically among the trees.
They looked much smaller than our A. herodias
but otherwise exactly similar and the flight call
was almost if not quite precisely the same, a nasal
aink or haink. We could hear young birds uttering
a chattering cry [delete]which[/delete], when [delete]the[/delete] old Heron arrived
at the nest with food, swelled into a perfect uproar
resembling at times the voices of hungry swine, at
others the roar of escaping steam.
  Crossing a wide ditch on a slippery log and
following the direction of these sounds we soon
came in sight of a number of nests all in the
tops of large white willows 30 or 40 ft above the
ground. One tree held four nests, some of which
were very large and bulky, but only one seemed
to be occupied. An old Heron was standing on its
edge and three or four young about one quarter
grown squatting in the middle of the platform
just showing their heads above the rim. As
luck would have it the missing parent arrived
with a fish just as we had settled ourselves
comfortably about 40 yards from the tree. She