32 THE BIRDS OF ESSEX. 



the Court of Quarter Sessions. The House-Sparrows found in him a perse^■ering 

 and relentless foe, his argument being that the Martins and Swallows about our 

 village and homesteads were being rapidly exterminated by this dominant and 

 ubiquitous species. He boasted that at Stubbers he had, by killing off the 

 Sparrows, increased the number of Martins' nests from two to nigh one hundred 

 and fifty [44. iii. xx.]. * * * He was a frequent contributor to the Natural History 

 and public journals on this question, and was one of the writers, in conjunction 

 with Mr. Gurney and Dr. Elliott Coues, of a volume on the Sparrow-question, 

 which appeared in 1886. He constantly advocated the claims of his feathered 

 friends for outdoor-assistance in hard winters, and in his garden could be seen con- 

 trivances in aid of tiny housekeepings, and nets full of scraps of fat and biscuitst 

 &c, temptingly displayed and fitting for the season or the whims and fancies of 

 his little pensioners. The place was indeed a veritable paradise for all that dwell 

 in nests or have the ' gift of song.' 



"Col. Russell was one of the keenest sportsmen of his time, and few faces 

 were better known, or will be more missed, in the Blackwater estuary and 

 on the 'Main.' It is now forty-five years since he first came regularly to 

 the river, punting and wild-fowling, and it is stated that from that time 

 to the present he only lost one season, when in America. His first j'acht was the 

 ' Greyhound^' (sixteen tons), built for him at Heybridge Basin, which he sailed 

 for fifteen years. Next came the 'Sheldrake' (twenty tons), built at Harvey's, 

 at Wivenhoe, which he used for thirty-two years (he had this and the ' Greyhound ' 

 together for about two years). Next the ' Champion ' (twenty-eight tons) built 

 at Mr. J. Howard's, Maldon, launched in September, 1886, without a name, but 

 speedily christened by the Maldon Hythe duck-hunters, the 'Black Goose,' and 

 the name still survives. She is a iirst-class boat, and Col. Russell took great in- 

 terest in her while building, superintending much of the work himself. The year 

 previous (188;) he had built at Mr. Howard's yard a light punt, he and his 

 skipper working at it themselves during the whole summer, nothing to be touched 

 except when he was present. He was equally careful with his lifeboat built in 

 1884. Both boats were designed by himself, and were very successful ; the punt 

 is an especially interesting craft. The Colonel was always much interested in ship- 

 building, and was constantly inventing varnishes, and glues, and other appliances 

 for his favourite work. So skilful and much at home was he in the yard, that 

 strangers has'e taken him for one of the regular workmen. 



" He was a remarkably good shot at wild-fowl, ihaving one of the biggest guns 

 used in the district, and was known to the Maldon gunners as a most fair-dealing 

 shooter ; however small the gun or bad the chance of one shooting with him, the 

 ' kill ' was always equally divided by the Colonel, always to his own disadvantage. 

 He was most patient and persevering in his pursuit of the Black Goose, and as 

 Gabriel Clark (who was with him all the fort3--five years, and who still lives at Mal- 

 don) tells, it was wonderful how many hours he would wait and work for them, and 

 whenever he did get near the birds it was ' all up ' with them : their doom was 

 certain. His knowledge of the Blackwater Estuarj- and the Main outside was far 

 and allowedly superior to that of any of the natives, and he was an authorit3- 

 to the Marsh-bailiffs and oyster dredgermen on manj' points of river lore. 



Col. Russell's health failed in the beginning of 1887. In February, 

 he went for a trip on his yacht to Holland, but the change did not 

 benefit him. When he returned early in March he was seriously ill, 



