INTRODUCTION. 3 



or to what a pitch of ornithological eminence the county might by 

 this time have been raised. 



Essex has been favoured, too, in its great extent and in the 

 variety presented by its surface, which in different spots presents 

 several widely different kinds of country. It entirely lacks those 

 mountainous tracts, wide open moors, and rocky precipitous cliffs, 

 which afford some of the most interesting birds met with in many 

 other counties ; but still, taken , as a whole, Essex probably presents 

 as great a variety of surface as any other English county, except, 

 perhaps, Yorkshire. These varied districts next deserve a few words 

 of special mention. They may be roughly classed as : — 



(i) The Chalky Uplands, 



(2) The Lowlands, 



(3) The Forests and Woodlands, 



(4) The Marshes and Saltings, 



(5) The Open Sea. 



(i.) The Chalky Uplands. This, though a well-defined area, 

 with striking natural features, is of small extent, being confined to the 

 district around and to the N., N.W., and W. of Saffron Walden, in 

 the extreme north-western corner of the county, abutting upon 

 Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire, in which counties this kind of 

 country covers a considerable area. Around Heydon, the appearance 

 of the country a good deal resembles that of the South Downs, 

 though much less undulating, and nearly all enclosed and under 

 cultivation of some sort. Still, the boldly-undulating, well-rounded 

 hills, separated by more or less deep valleys, so characteristic of all 

 chalk-districts, are unmistakably there. Here, naturally, we meet 

 with birds of the open downs. The Stone Plover, which nests no- 

 where else in the county, breeds in some numbers, while the Dotterel 

 halts awhile, on its spring and autumn migrations. The hills, though 

 for the most part bare, are in places covered with woods, chiefly 

 plantations. 



(2.) The Lo\vlands. This extensive region, though varying 

 a good deal in its chief characteristics and appearance in different 

 spots, may be said to form at least seven-tenths of the entire county. 

 It occupies the whole of the centre, extending almost unbroken 

 from the chalky uplands in the extreme north-west to the marshes 

 and saltings on the coast. Broadly speaking, it is a region of stiff 

 clay, mainly the London Clay, but overlaid by the Chalky Boulder 

 Clays in places, and the whole may be said to be (and to have been 



B 2 



