1^ 



THE BIRDS OF ESSEX. 



" Last week several Ring Ouzels were seen here, and one or two killed, but 

 I was not able to get one myself. My brother Edward saw a pair on a warren 

 about four miles from us, about a week since. I went to look after them by 

 daylight next morning, hoping to be able to shoot them, but I could not find 

 them." 



A few days later he notes killing " a remarkably fine female, at some gravel- 

 pits in the forest, about a mile off " (23..13). One also frequented Doubleday's 

 garden, at Epping, during the first week of Nov. 187 1 (34. 2942). At Epping, 

 Edward Doubleday wrote in 1835 (15), that they were " seen only at the time of 

 their equatorial and polar migrations." "One was seen in the spring of 1884 

 by the River Roding " ^Buxton — 47. 85). There is in the Saffron Walden 

 Museum a young bird shot at Littlebury on April 27th, 1836. Mr. Clarke (24) 

 mentions two others shot at Audley End, on Aug. loth, 1836 and April 28th, 

 1839, respectively. He adds the remark, "One, sometimes two, taken most 

 seasons." Round Harwich it is " occasionally seen during the spring and autumn 

 migrations." Two were seen (40. v. 26) on Oct. 10, 1880 (Kerry). Four were 

 shot by Mr. Catchpool, of Peering Bury, in 1857 (C. E. Smith — 31. 53). One 

 was seen |by a keeper close to this house about the middle of April, 1877. Mr. 

 Hope says it is not uncommon, during migration, at Marshall's Park, Romford. 

 Mr. Lister (40. 442) saw a fine male in a garden near Wanstead Park, on Sept. 

 5th, 1877, and another cock about ten years previously at West Ham. 

 One was seen at Hylands, Widford, on April 14th, 1878. In 1883, Mr. Stacey, of 

 Dunmow, showed me one shot shortly before near Stanstead. Mr. Parsons (35) 

 records one shot near Southchurch in 1850, and in his collection are specimens 

 from near Shoebury. Mr. Joseph Clarke tells me that a female, weighing 4yOz., 

 with a bare breast, was shot at the Roos, in Oct.1878. 



The only reliable record of its having bred in the county is the following, 

 though Yarrell says (14. i. 207) that " from the circumstance of a specimen 

 having been shot early in the month of August, 1836, near Saffron Walden 

 [see above] it was conjectured the bird had been. bred in that neighbour- 

 hood " : — Mr. C. E. Bishop, of Wickham, found a nest with four eggs, built 

 almost upon the ground, about a foot from the edge of a ditch, and a few yards 

 from the edge of the Blackwater, in that parish, on May loth, 1879. The hen 

 only was seen, and she was sitting (40. iii. 267). 



^A/heatea^ : Saxicola (znanthe. 

 Best known in Essex as a passing 



WHEATEAl- 



migrant in spring and autumn 

 (especially the former), though 

 it breeds commonly along our 

 sea-coast at Maldon, Burn- 

 ham, Brightlingsea, Walton, 

 Shoebury and elsewhere. 

 I have never known it breed 

 in the inland parts of the 

 county, except occasionally 

 near Saffron Walden, where 

 the hilly and chalky country 

 is exactly suited to its habits. 

 It often arrives early in March. 



