THE PROTECTION' OF WILD BIRDS IN ESSEX. I3 



" The following details are extracted from letters received 

 in answer to these queries : — 



A. I 'It was a very bad season for shore birJs on account of very high 



tides.' 



2 ' For the past three or four years they seem at a stanr'still— neither 



increase or decrease.' 



3 ' The floods last year had a great deal to do with the scarcity of birds 



this year.' 



B. I. ' The shore birds have increased in almost every case.' 



2. ' While these have increased, the wild fowl have considerably 



decreased.' 



3. ' The breeding grounds were much damaged by the high tide. Many 



of the eggs were destroyed, and on the enclosed marshes many of 

 the young died for want of water, the ditches having been drained 

 to clear them from the salt water.' 



C. 'The birds did well in regard to breeding, but on account of the 



great flood of salt water, after the birds were hatched, they got 

 vno the water, and it being salt water, they died. There was no 

 frash warier for thim for some time, as the salt water remained so 

 loi.g on the marshes.' 



D. ' I think on the whole a decreas2 in this district, and I think that the 



floods have been the means of stopping the breeding of wild fowl 

 all around this localit\', as they have been over-flowed several 

 times last season.' 



E. ' I think we had more Terns and Ring Plover breeding here this year ; 



not quite so many ducks, as I think tliey went where they could 

 get fresh water I told you about the gulls. There was not 

 one nest in my fleets, only a few, very late, in my neighbour's 

 fleet. They came at the usual time, found the fleets run dry after 

 the flood of salt water— as we had very little rain they did not fill 

 up again — so I suppose they did not like the look of it, and went 

 a way ; then they came back again about a week into June. I 

 found 22 nests on the saltings, with one and two eggs in, and they 

 managed to hatch them off in-between the big tides. So there 

 was not a tenth part so many as usual, 1 believe through no other 

 cause than the flood. I saw the first Ring Plover's nest with two 

 eg2;s, on May 13th ; young Terns, some nearly feathered and some 

 just hatched, on fune 26th ; on July 7th I found a Wild Duck sit- 

 ting hard on the salting ; we had the tide a foot deep in most 

 places, and must have been three or four inches deep over the nest 

 two days following. I think she hatched off all right, as I found 

 the remains of the eggs after in the nest. They could not be fit to 

 shoot by the ist of August ! I saw one nice brood of Wild Duck 

 on May ist.' 



F. ' As for the Wild Fowl, they are as scarce this winter as I ever knew 



them. From what I have understood, the floods and big tide 

 afifected the ground so that it killed a great many of the young 

 ducks, and I think the close time ought to be the first of March till 

 the first of September.' 



