HERON. 
ARDEJ CINEREA. 
Formerly the head of the game list, the Heron, since the decline of Hawking, has fallen from its proud 
estate, and at the present day is but little esteemed by any, save plumassiers. Anglers, as well as keepers in 
charge of lakes and rirers that abound with fish, are but little impressed by the beauty of these handsome birds, 
and not unfrequently view with intense disgust their arrival to prey on the scaly denizens of their well-stocked 
waters. Occasionally these birds are shot down as vermin in consequence of their depredations, and, considering 
the result of observations taken in many parts of the country, I am by no means surprised at the reception they 
meet with. 
From north to south the Heron is distributed in larger or smaller numbers over most of the Enc^lish 
and Scotch counties I have visited— more abundant in well-preserved districts where their ancient haunts are 
carefully looked after, though breeding also in parties of from a score or two down to even single pairs in 
several of the forests in the Northern Highlands. During the years I was collecting in Ross-shire I also met 
with many small communities rearing their young in the dwarfed and weather-beaten pines or stunted bushes 
along the shores of the firths, rivers, and lochs. 
There is an exceedingly interesting breeding-place of this species in the rocks overlooking the open sea to 
the north of the entrance to the Cromarty Firth. At a portion of the range of cliffs known as the Cairn Rhui 
their nests, at the time of one of my last visits to the spot in May 18G9, were placed thickly in the vigorous 
plants of ivy that here creep up the precipice, as well as on some of the bare ledges of rock. A colony of 
Jackdaws had also established themselves in the iry, and many of their domiciles were in close proximity and in 
some instances joined to those -of the Herons, the occupants appearing to agree in a marvellous manner, 
considering the bad character usually attributed to the Daws. I spent many hours in watching the animated 
scene to be viewed from the summit, and on one occasion, while carefully examining with the glasses the 
birds flying round, I detected a fine old male making straight for the ledges on which the nests were placed, 
and requiring a good specimen at the time I fired in hopes of securing him. Though evidently hard hit he 
turned and flew out to sea; after flapping with difficulty a couple of hundred yards or so, he circled round and 
again made for the cliffs, finally doubling up and pitching headlong among the large blocks of stone on the 
shore at the foot of the rocks. A shepherd who had watched the effect of the shot at once volunteered to fetch 
the bird, and after proceeding a short distance along the edge descended by a track that I should have imagined 
utterly impracticable for any human being without the aid of a rope. An hour or so later he returned, having 
ailed to discover the object of his search, which we came to the conclusion must have fallen on to the 
water and been swept away by the tide before he reached the spot. Later in the day, however, when we had 
reached the shore by a longer, though far safer, path down the cliffs near Shandwick, and were obtaining a few 
specimens of Eock-Doves from the caves, we detected our lost prize stretched out on the top of a high era" ; 
not a leg or wing extended beyond the edge of the rock, and it was only a gust of wind ruffling the 
