2 THE BIRDS OF ESSEX. 



The physical features of every county and district have such a 

 direct and powerful bearing upon the kinds of birds frequenting them 

 that some detailed attempt to describe those features should be an 

 essential part of all avi-faunas. 



In More's Distribution of Birds in Great Bidtain during the 

 Nesting-season i^'^, Essex is made to form part of Province III 

 (Thames), in which it constitutes the eastern half of Sub-province 8, 

 comprising Essex, Herts, and Middlesex. 



As an ornithological hunting-ground, Essex has been especially 

 favoured by Nature in several different ways. The fact of its being 

 situated upon the sea-coast is, in the first place, a very great ad- 

 vantage from the ornithological, as from so many other, points of 

 view ; but the additional facts that it is situated on the East coast of 

 England, in close proximity to the continent, and in the direct line 

 of the constant stream of migration which is ever flowing backwards 

 and forwards across the North Sea, and that its coast-line is 

 specially suited to attract all kinds of shore-loving birds, still 

 further show how highly the county has been favoured in these matters. 

 The advantage of its maritime situation which, under other circum- 

 stances, might have been largely lost, is thus greatly intensified by 

 two other concurrent and auxiliary advantages. 



In all probability the ornithological riches of Essex are in no 

 respect inferior to those of the neighbouring county of Norfolk, 

 which, for wealth of bird-life, has, by common consent, been allowed 

 to take a place at the head of all the other English counties. It is 

 very likely that, had the birds of Essex been as attentively studied 

 as have those of Norfolk, we should have been able to show as long 

 and as interesting a list as the ornithologists of that county. 



The progress of ornithological study in Norfolk affords an ex- 

 cellent proof of the value of these local bird-lists, as a means of 

 encouraging the study of birds. The first list of the birds of Norfolk 

 was written by Sir Thomas Browne, of Norwich, about 1650. Since 

 then at least ten other lists of Norfolk birds have appeared, as 

 each writer in turn wished to add his observations to those of his 

 last predecessor, until now it may be truly said that (perhaps excepting 

 Yorkshire) Norfolk has produced more county lists and more 

 working ornithologists, who have between them added more to our 

 knowledge of British ornithology as a whole, than any other three 

 English counties combined. If only our illustrious Ray had made 

 some attempt to produce a list of local birds, similar to that of his 

 contemporary. Sir Thomas Browne, there is no saying how many 

 practical Essex ornithologists it might indirectly have brought out, 



