Herons build in large colonies, or heronries, which may contain from about fifteen to as many as four hundred nests. Formerly there were a great number of English heronries, especially in Lincolnshire, but many of these, like the well-known large one near Spalding, have been broken up. Many, however, still remain, and a new one has been recently established near Lewes. One of the largest English heronries was that of Bride, near Rye, in Sussex, which in 1860 contained as many as four hundred nests, although by 1880 there were barely a couple of hundred. Now, owing to the felling of some of the trees, this magnificent heronry has ceased to exist. The nest is a large, rude structure of dry sticks and reeds, lined with hair, wool, and feathers, in which the female lays her three or four large green eggs. The young remain in the nest, or nesting-platform as it might well be called, until fully fledged, and are remarkably voracious. Putrefying fish cover the edge of the nest, as well as the ground below, and poison the air with their smell. The parents attend to their offspring for a few days after the latter leave the nest; but at the end of this period old and young part company. If the nest be attacked, the parents suffer their eggs or young to be carried off, without doing more than opening their beaks and uttering mournful cries, although in many cases a single blow from the beak would suffice to slay the spoiler. Heron-hawking was in former days a favourite sport of the nobles all over Europe. The falcon, usually the peregrine, always endeavoured to get above the heron, when, after the delivery of a successful attack, both birds fell together headlong to the ground. As a rule, the ornamental feathers--at one time highly esteemed--were plucked from the heron, which was then set at liberty. On account of the damage it does to fisheries, the heron is even more persecuted on the Continent than in Great Britain; and is shot whenever an opportunity occurs, except in protected breeding-places. THE GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER (_Dendrocopus major_)