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NOTES ON REPORT OF THE ESSEX BIRD 

 PROTECTION SOCIETY, 1903. 



By FRANCIS DEXT, Hon. Sec. to the Society. 

 [Read December i ^th, 1 903 . ] 



IN spite of the constantly increasing work thrown upon it by 

 ParHament, the Essex County Council still finds time to 

 devote its attention, amongst other objects, to the Protection of 

 Wild Birds. The latest of several orders in Council made by the 

 Home Secretary, varying and extending the provisions of the 

 Wild Birds Protection Act, 1880, for the County of Essex, is 

 dated Dec. 13, 1901, and is summarised in the Report for 1903, 

 which has just been issued by the Essex Bird Protection 

 Society. This Society, which was originally formed for the 

 purpose of calling attention to the necessity of further protection 

 for some of our rarer wild birds which were in danger of 

 extinction, continues to do useful work in helping to make the 

 Protection Order really effective, by employing watchers at 

 various stations along the coast, to see that the law is observed, 

 by stimulating the zeal of the County Police by giving small 

 rewards in cases where extra vigilance has been shown, and by 

 itself undertaking to prosecute offenders against whom proceedings 

 would not otherwise be taken in such cases as are brought to its 

 notice. 



From the summary of the Protection Order given in the 

 report, it will be seen that two separate areas in the County are 

 specially protected (i) The coast and estuaries, and (2) the 

 suburban parishes which border upon Epping Forest, 



The Essex coast with its network of creeks, saltings and 

 marshes from Harwich to Shoeburyness forms a natural breeding 

 ground for a number of birds, among which are included black- 

 headed gulls, terns, lesser terns, ring plover, redshank, peewit, 

 sheld-duck, wild duck, teal, pochard, besides many others, and 

 is the haunt in wdnter of large numbers of wild fowl. When the 

 County Council took up the question of Protection, some of 

 these species w^ere on the verge of extinction, as breeding species 

 at any rate. The terns, and lesser terns in particular, had 

 suffered great diminution by the robbing of their nests, which 



