HISTORY OF ESSEX HERONRIES.
51
value of the state of preservation as giving, in itself, reliable
evidence of date.
I have submitted the collection of potsherds that I have
collected on the site, including inscribed Samian ware, to Mr.
Christopher Hawkes. He said that it all came within the
century of A.D. 50 to A.D. 150, and that there was no suggestion
of Saxon influence. These sherds were not associated with the
interments in any definite manner, but were scattered generally
through the soil; they incidentally suggest that there may be
a more important Romano-British site not far away, but they
do not help in dating the interments.
In spite of representations made by the College of Surgeons, I
was informed that the police had removed a sackful of skulls
and bones and had re-interred them in Nazeing Churchyard.
As one's efforts to date the interments have failed up to the
present, perhaps the loss is not so serious as it might have been.
The site is not exhausted, but it must be confessed that so
far it is not encouraging. It undoubtedly much resembles a
Saxon graveyard, but until some contemporary relic is dis-
covered I think the date must be left open.
THE HISTORY OF ESSEX HERONRIES:
ADDITIONAL COLONIES.
By WILLIAM E. GLEGG, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U.
IN my article "The History of Essex Heronries" (The Essex
Naturalist, vol. 24, pp. 254-65) I described twenty extinct
and nine occupied sites of colonies of the Heron (Ardea cinerea
cinerea L.). As the result of the publication of the article referred
to, I have been informed of two additional sites, one being-
extinct and the other occupied. Mr. Geoffrey Dent informs
me that up to 1934 there was a small colony at Hylands Park,
near Chelmsford. There were usually only a few nests and
they were built in trees close to the lake. With the permission
of Mr. C. G. Hanbury I visited Hylands on 9th April, 1935,
but could not find anything to suggest that there were any
occupied nests. I saw what appeared to be three disused nests
in high conifers in the plantation beside the lake. I also saw
two or three birds, but they did not behave as though they were