THE BIRDS OF ESSEX. 



lakes and streams in all parts of the county. It arrives late in April 

 and remains till late in September. 



Lieut. Legge says (23. 9837) that round Shoebury it is 



" one of the commonest of our Warblers, frequenting the reedy ditches of the 

 lowlands and situations where there are bushes, brambles, and sedge in the 

 vicinity of water. They resort particularly to dykes which are lined with the 

 wild sloe, which grows in great abundance in Canvey Island and other flat lands 

 in the vicinity. They build in the sloe in preference to any other bush." He adds 

 that " out of about two dozen nests, found in the course of a few days, seven 

 were built in almost the same manner and position as those of the Reed 

 Warbler." 



Grasshopper Warbler : Locustella ficevia. 



A summer visitor to all parts of the county, I believe, but 



decidedly uncommon, and always far more often heard than 



r,^^-. seen. It is usually first 



heard about the end of April, 



and leaves us in September. 



Mr. Clarke mentions one shot at 

 Audley End on May 20th, 1836, and 

 two shot at Widdington on April 

 30th, 1839 (24)- King, writing at 

 Sudbury in 1838, says (20) : " I 

 have only once seen this bird in our 

 neighbourhood. Probably from its 

 retired habits it often passes un- 

 noticed, and may not be so rare as we 

 suppose." Henry Doubleday, writing 

 from Epping in 1832, says (10), "only a single pair appear in the vicinity — in a 

 thick, damp wood ; " but Mr. Buxton describes it (47. go) as " common 

 throughout the [Epping Forest] district." It breeds round Harwich (Kerry). I 

 have eggs taken at Chignal, where the bird is not uncommon among the standing 

 corn, and Mr. Fitch has known it nest at Maldon. 

 Savi's "Warbler : Loaistella luscinioldes. 



A very rare summer visitor to the eastern counties, now pro- 

 bably extinct, as no British specimen has been recorded since 



1856. It is very probable 

 that it used to nest in 

 Essex when the marshes 

 were entirely undrained, 

 but the only actual record 

 of its having done so is 

 the following very doubt- 

 ful one : — 



J. Green, of Whitecross Place, 

 Wilson Street, Finsbury, writes 



(23. 2849): — "I took a nest of 



sAvi's WARBLER, Yz. SavI's Warbler at Dagenham on 



GRASSHOPPER WARBLER, J^. 



