244 
BIRDS ABOUT ELLESMERE AND LLANSILIN. Nov. ,1892. 
another on a moss not far from Colemere. Herons con¬ 
tinually frequent the meres. One year there were two 
nests of these birds at Colemere. There are three heronries 
still in Shropshire : at Oakley Park, at Attingham, and at 
Halston, near Oswestry. I am a great admirer of these 
birds, and I like to think of them frequenting the same 
waters, in our part of Shropshire, where once their startled 
ancestors “ spread mighty wings to escape the swift rush of 
the prior’s favourite falcon.” Their haunts to-day were their 
haunts a thousand years ago. In the self-same places “ these 
ancient solitary anglers watch and wait.’ 5 
•j C/ 
Always connected in my mind with the heron are the coot 
and the water hen :— 
“ The coot was swimming in the reedy pond, 
Beside the water hen so soon affrighted ; 
And in the weedy moat the heron, fond 
Of solitude, alighted. 
The moping heron, motionless and stiff, 
That on a stone, as silently and stilly, 
Stood, an apparent sentinel, as if 
To guard the water-lily.” 
During severe weather in winter, the water hen, usually so 
shy, becomes comparatively tame, consorting sometimes with 
barn-door fowl; the coot, on the other hand, continues to be 
as wary as ever. With reference to the grebes, the great 
grebe is more in evidence on our meres than the dabcliick, 
which loves to shun observation. The word grebe is Celtic, 
crib in Welsh being a comb or crest, and cribell, the diminu¬ 
tive, a cock’s comb. When the great - crested grebe is 
swimming along, its neck looks like an upright stick. When 
it dives it uses only its feet. When on land it cannot 
walk but shoves its body along, rubbing the breast against 
the ground, after the fashion of a seal. 
Passing to a different class of birds, I would first 
notice the sedge warbler and the reed warbler. The 
likeness in their colour, size, and habits is so great that 
they have often been confounded. Yet there are differences 
between them which cannot be passed over. In the 
reed warbler the base of the bill is broader; it has 
no light stroke over the eye, which in the other is well- 
defined and conspicuous. Then, again, its song is not so 
varied as that of the sedge warbler. This latter bird has 
been called the English mocking bird, for it reproduces 
in fragments the songs of many species. At one 
time we may hear it parodying the loud, clear whistle 
of the blackbird; at another the wholly differing soft, 
sweet tones of the willow wren. The nest and eggs are 
