NOTICES OF THE CHIEF ESSEX 

 BIRD COLLECTIONS. 



The Audley End Collection (Lord Braybrooke's) is very fine 

 for a private collection, both British and foreign species being well 

 represented. All the specimens are stuffed, most of them being 

 admirably done, and all are equally well cased. The majority of the 

 cases, which are large and contain many birds each, occupy the sides 

 of one of the rooms in the mansion, but a few are ranged down 

 the sides of the Long Gallery. The specimens they contain are in an 

 excellent state of preservation. Most were collected about forty 

 years ago by the late Lord Braybrooke, but others have been more 

 recently added. Each specimen bears a number referring to the 

 catalogue, which is in manuscript, but there are comparatively few 

 instances in which the locality and date are given, and still fewer in 

 which those data show the specimens to have been obtained in Essex, 



The Baxter Collection, the property of Mr. G. H. Baxter, of 

 Hutton, is comparatively small, but is admirably preserved and is of 

 interest as it consists mainly of specimens shot by Mr. Baxter him- 

 self in the county. It is especially strong in sea- and water-birds, and 

 is preserved in cases which occupy the walls of the billiard-room. 



The Bree Collection. A considerable portion of the orni- 

 thological collections of the late Dr. C. R. Bree of Colchester (see p. lo) 

 is, fortunately, still preserved. The unmounted skins, &c., are in the 

 possession of Mr. W. H. Harwood of that place, who purchased them 

 from Dr. Bree's representatives shortly after his death. The series, 

 which is in good preservation and well taken care of, consists of sev- 

 eral hundred skins, an interesting collection of birds' nests (among 

 which are that of the Swallow taken at Walton in December, 1866, 

 and a reputed Fieldfare's taken at Alresford) ; also a considerable 

 series of the sterna and furcula of birds, among which are the bones 

 of the Egyptian Vulture shot at Peldon. The great majority of 

 the skins, many of which are foreign, have no special connection with 

 Essex, but are of great interest as being undoubtedly the type speci- 

 mens used by Dr. Bree when compiling his History of the Birds of 

 Europe. Among others there is a large number of valuable skins 

 collected in Sweden and Lapland by the late Mr. Wheelwright. The 



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