86 



THE BIRDS OF ESSEX. 



WOOD-WARBLER, m'Cr J^. 



difficult to distinguish it from the Chiffchaff, but its note, nest, and 

 eggs are entirely different. 



Mr, Grubb says (39), it is " usually the first of our summer migrants heard " 

 at Sudbury : elsewhere, however, the Chiffchaff usually precedes it. 



Wood- Warbler : Phylloscopus sibilatrix. 



A summer visitor, though very local, and not common. In 

 Essex I only know of its occurrence at Epping and Saffron 



Walden. It seldom arrives 

 before the middle of April 

 and departs in September. 



In the Saffron Walden Mu- 

 seum are specimens from Epping 

 and Walden, the former pre- 

 sented by Hy. Doubleday. One 

 was shot in Whitley Wood, 

 Birdbrook,in 1830 (19. 9). Mr. 

 Clarke, writing about 1845, de- 

 scribed it (24) as " not uncom- 

 mon in summer " round Saffron 

 Walden, and Mr. Travis assures me that many years ago he took a nest near 

 the aviary at Audley End. Henry Doubleday writes (23. 356) : — 



"The three species * * * are all common [at Epping], and I have had 

 abundant opportunities of observing their habits. The Wood Wren arrives the 

 latest — generally in the third week in April— and always frequents woods, gener- 

 ally where there are tall trees, but is only locally distributed, as there are many 

 parts of our woods and forests where they are never seen. They seem particularly 

 attached to certain spots, and seldom move far away, and are very rarely seen in 

 the open country," 



Mr. Buxton says (47. 90) that in Epping Forest it is still " local, rather than 

 rare, generally frequenting tall trees." He adds that it usually arrives in the 

 Forest about April 15th, and that it breeds there. Yarrell says (14, i. 3C0) it is 

 " not uncommon in the metropolitan counties." 



Reed Warbler: Acrocephalus streperus. Locally, "Reed- 

 chat " (Orsett). 



A regular summer visitor, though rather uncommon except on 

 our coast, and decidedly local. It inhabits the reed-beds beside the 

 Stour at Sudbury, and in the marshes near the coast, but I have 

 never m et with it in the central parts of our county. 



In the summer of 1831, Mr. Grubb procured some specimens of this bird and 

 its nest at Sudbury, where, he says (i2. v. 310) " it abounds in the reeds on the 

 banks of the Stour, and in the ditches communicating with the river," He adds 

 that he discovered two nests. Dr. Maclean, writing to T. C. Heysham, about 

 1838, speaks (16) as though it were then not uncommon round Sudbury. W. D. 

 King, also writing at Sudbury in 1838, says (20): "This interesting bird 

 abounds on the reedy banks of our river. Its simple nest is elegantly and ingeni- 

 ously suspended between three reeds or rather interwoven round their stalks. 

 The figure of this bird and its nest given in Loudon's Magazine of Natural^ 



