THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 77 



will no doubt linger in the memories of those who were present 

 at the meeting [Ibid XL, 294.)^ 



Such papers as those referred to have in many cases also 

 comprised most important contributions to the County Fauna, 

 but most of our purely faunistic work appears in the form of special 

 memoirs, local lists, notes communicated to our Editor or in 

 reports of field-meetings. I have not attempted to collate all the 

 records contained in the stray notes scattered throughout our 

 publications, but I may call attention to the larger systematic 

 works and papers. In the first place two of our Special Memoirs 

 are faunistic in character, the Birds of Essex, by Mr. Miller 

 Christy, published in 1891, and the Mammals, Reptiles and Fishes 

 of Essex, by our former President, Mr. Laver, published in 1898. 

 These two volumes together furnish a complete list of the 

 Vertebrate animals of our County. A preliminary list of the 

 Mammalia was communicated to the Club by Mr, Laver in 1881 

 {Trans., IL, 157). In addition to these two Special Memoirs 

 many papers and notes relating to the Vertebrate Fauna of 

 Essex will rank as permanent contributions to local natural 

 history. The Epping Forest deer formed the subject of a paper 

 by Mr. Harting in 1884 (Essex Naturalist, I.,. 46) and the so- 

 called " wolf " of the Forest had his true history narrated and 

 stripped of romance by our Hon. Secretary in a supplement to 

 the fourth and last volume of the Proceedings (IV., cciv). Those 

 casual visitors to our shores, the whales, have also been duly 

 recorded, the first Rudolphi's Rorqual by Sir Wm. Flower in 

 1883 [Trans., IV., iii.), the second by Mr. Walter Crouch in 

 1887 (Essex Naturalist, II., 41), and the third, also by Mr. 

 Crouch, in 1891 [Ibid, V., 124; VIL, 50). The bats of Epping 

 Forest are recorded from the late Mr. Edward Newman's list in 

 an appendix to the inaugural address {Trans., I., 23) and again 

 in the Essex Naturalist with descriptive notes by Mr. Cole 

 (IX., 134.) 



The birds of Essex have been kept well under observation 

 since the foundation of the Club. The occurrence of the Great 

 Bustard and the Rough-legged Buzzard, near Chelmsford, was 

 the first ornithological contribution from Mr. Miller Christy in 

 1880 {Proc, I., v..; Trans. L, 59). Mr. Christy's Special Memoir 

 above referred to is universally regarded as the standard 

 monograph on our avifauna. You will be glad to learn that 



2 Mr. Smith's first paper on the Spiders of Epping Forest was read at the meeting of the 

 Club on .March 8th, 1902. 



