not, lined with some sort of soft material, such as dry grass, rushes,
feathers, or wool, the body of the nest is quite flat, and formed much
in the manner of an eagle's eyry, of sticks crossing one another, and
supported upon the branches or between the forks of high trees. All
the species also are social, nestling in large communities, after the
manner of rooks; though instances are not uncommon of individual pairs
breeding solitary. Belon tells us, that "the heron is royal meat, on
which the French nobility set great value;" and he mentions it as one
of the extraordinary feats performed by the "divine king," Francis I.,
that he formed two artificial heronries at Fontainbleau;--"the very
elements themselves," he adds, "obeying the commands of this divine
king (whom God absolve!); for, to force nature, is a work partaking of
divinity!"[5] In order to enhance the merit of these French heronries,
he undertakes to assert that they were unknown to the ancients,
because they are not mentioned in any of their writings; and for the
same reason, he concludes that there are none in Britain. Before
Belon's time, on the contrary, and before the "divine" constructor of
heronries in France was born, there were express laws enacted in
England for the protection of herons, it being a fine of ten shillings
to take the young out of the nests,[6] and six shillings and
eightpence for a person, without his own grounds, killing a heron,
except by hawking or by the long-bow;[7] while, in subsequent
enactments, the latter penalty was increased to twenty shillings, or
three months' imprisonment.[8] At present, however, in consequence of
the discontinuance of hawking, little attention is paid to the
protection of heronries. Not to know a hawk from a _heronshaw_ (the
former name for a heron) was an old adage, which arose when the
diversion of heron-hawking was in high fashion. It has since been
corrupted into the absurd vulgar proverb, "not to know a hawk from a
handsaw!"[9] The flesh of the heron is now looked upon as of little