THE HISTORY OF ESSEX HERONRIES. 259
the heronry has been decreasing. Thirty nests were occupied
in 1926, thirty-two in 1927 and twenty-two in 1928. An exa-
mination of nine nests on 22nd April, 1928, showed that they
contained eggs or young, sometimes both, three having clutches
of five, five of four, and one nest containing one egg only. In
1927 one clutch of six was found and several of five. There were
very few with three or under, except in the cases of some unusually
late nests and second broods where the first had been destroyed.
Oaks, elms and conifers have been used at some time or other.
During a visit to this colony on 16th March, 1888, E. A. Fitch
found three or four Moorhens in the Herons' nests on the tops
of fir trees. On a subsequent visit on 4th April of the same
year a nest was examined and found to be four feet in diameter
and to be composed of a great number of elder and thorn branches
and twigs with a few fir boughs ; it was neatly lined with dock
straw and spruce twigs, also coarse grass and green twigs. Of six
pellets four weighed just over three ounces and two just under,
and the largest measured seven inches in circumference. They
seemed to be composed almost entirely of water-rats' fur most
tightly felted together.
I visited this colony on 15th April, 1927, when I was in-
formed that although a few stay the birds mostly leave in winter.
There has been a Rookery in proximity to the heronry.
The fourth existing colony is at St. Osyth's Priory. It is
situated in the beautiful Nun's Wood. A reconsideration of the
evidence leads me to think that confusion has arisen regarding
the date of the origin of this heronry. The earliest reference to
it that I can find is in the fourth edition of Yarrell, published
in 1885, St. Osyth being included in the list of Essex Heronries.
E. A. Fitch in his paper "Essex Heronries" The Essex
Naturalist, v. 2, pp. 171-86, which was read on 21st April, 1888,
quotes part of a letter from Sir J. H. Johnson, the owner of the
estate, which includes the following: "Five or six years ago a
solitary pair came and built on a tree on an island in one of my
"ponds." This letter was obviously written in 1888, so that the
first nest must have been noticed in 1882 or 1883. At the end
of the paragraph relating to this heronry Fitch writes, "On the
"10th May, Mr. Robert Cross communicated to me the welcome
"intelligence that this present year there were five nests at St.
"Osyth." Miller Christy in his "Birds of Essex" quotes Sir
R