NESTING HERONS.
One bird banished from some well-known haunts by the felling of timber, especially in Northumberland, is the heron, but the species is increasing in England, nevertheless. I saw an astonishing number along the Norfolk coast during the summer ; and the result of a very interesting correspondence in the Newcastle Journal corroborates the fact of their increase. Mr. Nicholson recently made, perhaps, the most complete and accurate bird census in the annals, and proved the existence so far as I remember, of well over 8,000 nesting pairs. Some water wardens, acting for greedy fishermen, have shown a shortsighted brutality in destroying this eel- and rat-killing bird; but wiser counsel begins to prevail. It breeds freely ; but personally I never heard of a clutch of six eggs which one correspondent holds to be normal. What is Mr. Nicholson'd
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