78 THE COMING OF AGE OF 



Mr. Christy has kept this work well up to date by preserving 

 all the later records, and these will in due course be 

 communicated to the Club. It must always be a matter of 

 satisfaction to us in turning over the records of our past work to 

 know that the Essex Field Club has borne no inconsiderable 

 part in that movement which has led to the protection of wild 

 birds of the County under the Acts of Parliament of 1880 as 

 amended in 1894. The matter was first brought before our 

 Council by Mr. Christy in 1895, ^^<i ^ petition was drawn up 

 by our Hon. Secretary on behalf of the Council and sent to the 

 Essex County Council the same year. The County Council 

 appointed a Committee under the Chairmanship of Mr. 

 Champion Russell to consider our proposals, which proposals 

 were subsequently accepted (Essex Naturalist, IX., 42J and 

 Mr. Russell brought the subject under the notice of our members 

 in a paper (Ibid. 218) in which he stated that an " Essex Bird 

 Protection Society " had been called into existence at a public 

 meeting held at Chelmsford in 1896. That Society is still in 

 existence and is doing good work — especially in relation to the 

 coast birds, and its labours have from time to time been recorded 

 in our pages {Ibid. IX., 255; X., 274). The later working and 

 developments of the Act have also been duly noted (Ibid. X., 133 ; 

 XL, 10) and the special and successful efforts made by Mr. 

 Edward North Buxton to secure absolute protection for the 

 birds of the whole of the Epping Forest district were recognized 

 by the Club and acknowledged in a formal vote of thanks passed 

 at the 17th Annual General Meeting in i8gy {Ibid. X., 15; see 

 also pp. 56 and 276 and XL, 10). Among other contributions to 

 Essex ornithology I may recall the very interesting discussion 

 on the sparrow as an agricultural depredator opened at a meeting 

 of the Club on May 20th, 1S82, by the late Et.-Col. Russell 

 {Proc. III., xx-xxvii), the paper on the re-appearance of Pallas's 

 Sand Grouse in 1888, compiled by our Secretary (Essex 

 Naturalist, II., 61), Mr. Harting's paper on the introduction 

 of the Tinamu into Essex {Ibid. 102), Mr. Fitch's papers on Essex 

 Heronries {Ibid. 171) and on the gulls and other birds frequenting 

 the ToUesbury marshes {Ibid. 193), and Mr. Percy Clark's visits 

 to the Black-headed Gulls in 1898, 1899 and 1900 {Ibid. X, 388 ; 

 XL, 184 ; 312). The general subject of bird-migration was 

 dealt with by Mr. Fitch in his presidential address in 1890 

 {Ihid. IV., I). 



