The Heron breeds locally throughout the British Islands, its favourite nesting places being in woods and plantations, although a ledge on a cliff, or a ruin, is sometimes selected. In many places, where the Heron is sufficiently abundant, it breeds in colonies, like Rooks, and resorts, year by year, to the same localities. The nest is usually a huge pile or platform of sticks, the cavity containing the eggs sometimes being lined with turf and moss. Some nests are much larger than others, the accumulation of years, and most are whitewashed with the birds’ droppings. The eggs—three to five in number—are greenish-blue, and chalky in texture. When disturbed at their nests the big birds rise, crashing through the branches into the air, and sail about above the place in anxiety until left in peace. They utter few or no notes of any kind. When the young are nearly full grown, they may be seen climbing about the trees, using their beak to assist them in passing from one part of the tree to another. The Heron is a bird of very wide distribution, and is found throughout Europe, Africa, Asia, and even Australia. In conclusion, we may remark that there are many other land birds found upon certain parts of the coast from time to time, especially during the two great periods of migration in spring and in autumn. The above short list must not be regarded in any way as being exhaustive. It contains, however, the most constantly characteristic species. Many small Passerine birds frequent the shore—especially on our eastern and southern seaboard, but they are arrivals from other lands, and often passing south or north, as the case may be, to yet more distant haunts. Among the more prominent of these, we may mention the Goldcrest, which often abounds on the coasts of the German Ocean; the Skylark and the Starling, that come each year in countless hosts; the various Finches and Thrushes, that visit us each season to pass the winter in our land. Then, more locally, there is the Snow Bunting and the Shore Lark—Arctic birds that visit us more or less commonly. The Common Bunting, too, is a common resident on many parts of the littoral area. Of other species we may mention the Short-eared Owl, the Sparrow-Hawk, the Woodcock—migrants from over the sea, tarrying but a short time to rest near the shore, before speeding inland, or yet further south. The Rook obtains much of its food from the sands in littoral districts; the Starling often congregates in vast flocks on the saltings. I have even seen the Rook take its food from the surface of the sea, precisely in the same manner as a Gull. _Migration on the Coast_ [Illustration: MIGRATION TIME. (On the Friskney foreshore.) Chapter viii.] CHAPTER VIII. MIGRATION ON THE COAST.