102 THE BIRDS OF ESSEX. 



Bourchiers, Little Dunmow, has one, shot there on May 7th, 1867. At the sale of the 

 late Mr.Troughton, of Coventry, in 1869, Mr. J. H. Gurney,jun., purchased and still 

 has a young male labelled, " shot in Essex by Mr. Maclaren." Dr. Bree records 

 a fine male shot at Copford on April 29th, 1870 (29. May 7, and 32a), adding, 

 " Colonel Hawkins has just informed me that he saw one in the woods at Alresford 

 a few days ago." On June i6th, 1874, a fine pair, which were doubtless about to 

 breed, were shot in the rectory garden atBradwell-juxta-Mare (29. June 27). One 

 was shot at Dudbrook about 1882 (Scruby). On May 22nd, 1883, our foreman 

 at Lindsell Hall shot a female on a tall ash-tree in the orchard there, after it had 

 been about for several days. Its loud sonorous whistling note had disturbed the 

 congregation in the adjoining church on the previous Sunday. Its mate was not 

 seen or heard (40. vii. 335). 



Mr. Fitch writes (50. i. 113) on June 9th, 1887 : 



" I was pleased this morning to see a male Oriole fly out of a tall hedge by 

 the roadside, almost opposite my Mosklyns farm-house [Purleigh]. I was on 

 horseback and followed it, gently flushing it twice along the road towards Haze- 

 leigh. It eventually took refuge in my little Box-iron Grove, where I trust, if it 

 has a mate, it may continue. One midsummer holidays, about eighteen years ago, I 

 saw an Oriole twice or thrice at Wixoe in Suffolk and at Baythorne End, Essex. 

 I well remember seeing it on both sides of the river," 



Mr. Fitch informs me that he saw the male again, but never its mate, always 

 near the same spot, for a week or two after the date named. There can, therefore, 

 be very little doubt that there was a nest. A fine adult male was shot by Mr. A. 

 S. Pearson in the parish of Belchamp Walter, on May 2nd, 1888. No other was 

 seen about, either at the time or afterwards, and it bore no evidence of having ever 

 been caged. It was preserved by Mr. Rose of Sudbury, and now belongs to the 

 Rev. Mr. Leaky of Acton, Suffolk (50. ii. 72). Mr. Capel Hanbury records that 

 he observed one feeding on the haws of a large white-thorn bush in company with 

 some blackbirds and thrushes on November 20th, 1888 (29. Dec. 8th), but the date 

 suggests that the bird seen belonged to some other species. Mr. Travis preserved 

 a fine male caught at Elmdon by some labourers under a hedge where it was 

 driven by a high wind, in June, 1888, Mr. Smoothy informs me that a gentleman 

 saw one several times in his garden at Sandon early in May, 1889. Yarrell 

 says (30. i. 241) several " have been taken in Kent and Essex." 



There is no thoroughly satisfactory record of its having bred in Essex, but Mr. 

 Hope informs me that the late Mrs. Lescher, of Boyle's Court, Brentwood, who 

 resided many years ago at Warley Place, could recollect more than one 

 instance of their breeding there ; and the Rev. G. C. Green, of Modbury, 

 Devon, in his Collections and Recollections 0/ Natural History and Sport (London, 

 1884), says : 



" There are, I fancy, very few recorded instances of the Golden Oriole breeding 

 in England, and few people have ever seen this bird upon its nest. My wife, how- 

 ever, can count herself among those privileged few. When she was quite a little 

 girl, she was living at Tiptoits, near Saffron Walden, in Essex, the house of her 

 uncle, T. W. Gayton, Esq. It was a ver}' old house, surrounded by a moat, and was 

 in the midst of its own grounds, entirely away from all other habitations. * * * It 

 was rather a celebrated place, having formerly [it is said] been attacked in vain for 

 fourteen nights by Dick Turpin's gang. Near to the moat grew a clump of fir trees, 

 and in one of these, in the year 1841, a pair of Golden Orioles built their nest. 

 One of my wife's uncles was well acquainted with the names and habits of birds, 

 and he soon discovered the presence of the illustrious strangers, and told his 

 niece what they were, and the gardener used frequently to lift up the ' little girl ' 

 to seethe beautiful bird upon its nest. They were zealously guarded and 1 have 

 every reason to suppose that they brought off their young safely ; but I was but a 



