There were at that time heronries, as at a later period there were pheasantries.

"In nesting-time a heronry, as such a colony is called, is a very noisy, dirty place; for they do not keep their homes neat and nice, like the tidy land birds.

Stay in doors patiently, until sunrise sends the rough-clawed prowler back to his heronry again.

" The open air seemed doubly sweet and fresh, after the fishy smell of the Heronry.

Then the cruel hunters tear off the plume-tuft from the back of each victim, as the savage does a human scalp, and move on in search of another heronry, to repeat this inhuman slaughter of the innocents.

[Illustration: A HERONRY.] * * * * * PALMS.

Pixton Park (in which there is a heronry) is the seat of the Countess of Carnarvon.

The heron is a somewhat rare bird among the more cultivated parts of England; but just hereabouts we get a sight of one not infrequently, for they still breed in a few tall ash-trees at Chilcombe Park, where the lords of the manor in mediaeval times long preserved a regular heronry to provide sport for their hawking.

There is a certain governor, of whom we personally can remember only, that he found the Fresh Pond heronry, which we sought in vain; and in memory the august sheriff of a neighboring county still skates in victorious pursuit of us, (fit emblem of swift-footed justice!)