1.44 
ARDEID^. 
thirty to fifty nests. At Marino, the seat of Lord Charlemont, on the 
borders of Dublin Bay, is an infant colony, first noticed by my in- 
formant in 1844, when the nests were but three in number : — in the 
next year, five ; and in the third, ten appeared. At Ballyward 
{Wicklow) there is a very ancient one; which contained, in 1846, 
about fifty nests.* 
Although the “ discord of sounds ” from a heronry certainly cannot 
be called “sweet,” I do not know a more interesting feature in a 
demesne than a finely situated one ; as, for instance, that in Hillsborough 
Park. We find the heronry amid scenery of the most various character, 
oftenest perhaps in the finely-wooded and cultivated park, having 
the adjunct of a spacious lake. One in a very different scene, in the 
island of Islay, will be mentioned ; but the most interesting that has 
in any way come under my notice is on a wooded island (under two 
English acres in extent ; the trees thirty to fifty feet in height), in 
Lough Athry — a lake about a mile in length — situated perhaps ten miles 
to the south-east of Clifden, county of Galway. So charming was this 
scene, that it was committed to the portfolios of my friend Eobert 
Callwell, Esq., and Dr. Petrie, during a tour undertaken a few years ago 
in search of the picturesque in Connemara. Dr. Petrie made an ex- 
quisite water-colour drawing of it (38 by 26 inches), which appeared in 
the Exhibition of the Eoyal Hibernian Academy for 1846, under the 
attractive and appropriate title of “ The Home of the Heron.” The 
locality is known to the people of the district by the prosaic name of 
“ Crane Island.” 
Immediately beyond an admirable foreground, faithfully representing 
nature, the lake fills up the picture from side to side, and the wooded 
island appears with some herons just above the trees, while others are 
sailing towards it on the bosom of the air from the far distance ; every 
individual, of which there are above thirty in number, being drawn to 
the life. At the farther side of the lake is a sublime rocky defile, the 
termination of which is but dimly seen through the clouds enveloping 
the mountains. Herons are the only living objects represented in the 
drawing. In addition to those already mentioned as on wing, a solitary 
bird stands in an attitude similar to the one so admirably portrayed by 
Bewick, at the nearer side of the lake. A heron is said to have been 
* Mr. Robert Callwell of Dublin. 
