A CATALOGUE 



OF 



THE BIRDS OF ESSEX. 



Order PASSERES. 



Family TURDID^. 



Mistle Thrush: Tiirdiis viscivorus. Locally, "Mavis" 

 (Orsett). 



A common resident in all districts. 



Round Orsett, it is always known as the " Mavis " (Sackett), a name which in 

 other parts of Essex and elsewhere, is usually reser\'ed for the Song Thrush. 



Song Thrush : Turdus vwsicus. Locally, "Mavis." 

 An abundant resident. 



Raj', writing- to Dr. Lister, on Ajiril 4th, 1676, says {^Philosophical Letters^ p. 137), 



thrushes were then called " iVIe- 

 visses " in Essex, and he be- 

 lieves elsewhere. From this it 

 would appear that the name, 

 which is now seldom heard 

 except in the north of Eng- 

 land, was then more general, 

 ^f^^ In the Epping district it is 

 " abundant in the autumn, but 

 almost absent in mid-winter " 

 (Buxton — 47. 85). In the 

 Audley End Collection (24) 

 is a white variety which lived 

 for some time in the aviary 

 there and died in 1847. On 

 May loth, 1878, Mr. R. W. 

 Christy found a nest containing twa eggs at Boynton Hall, built in the driving- 

 wheel of a corn mill which had been used only five days before. Among the many 

 strange sites for birds' nests which have been recorded the following, taken from 

 the Chelmsford Chronicle of May 23rd, 1879, deserves mention : — 



" At the Mistley Railway Station, a break-van is kept for the purpose of 



SONG THKUSH, ^. 



{After Bewick.) 



