ii6 



THE BIRDS OF ESSEX. 



flocks of 200 to 300 at a time. They fed principally upon the seeds of the horn- 

 beam {Carpinus), and in winters like the present, when hornbeam seeds were 

 scarce and the weather very severe, they spread over the country to villages and 

 gardens in search of food." Dr. Bree, in a letter to the Standard (Jan. 28, 1881), 

 after stating that the bird had been more numerous that winter round Colchester 

 than he had ever known it before, says : 



" I have known it as a breeder in this neighbourhood for the last ten years. 

 Ambrose, the local bird-stuffer here, tells me he has had upwards of thirty 

 this year. There are more than twenty now in his shop. He says they come 

 from all parts of the neighbourhood. One boy caught seven in a garden near 

 the river." 



At the same time they were much more common than usual round Saffron 

 Walden, many being sent in to Mr, Travis from the surrounding villages, especi- 

 ally during the hard weather in January. A pair were also shot in our garden 

 at Lindsell Hall. On Mar. 19th, 1878. Mr. H. Corder saw a flock of about twenty 

 in a small wood near Writtle. Mr. F. Spalding informs me that his sister caught 

 one by hand in her bedroom at Shenfield, it having entered by an open window. 

 At Harwich it is " scarce," though some are seen most winters (Kerry). " T. F. 

 R." mentions (12. ii. 404) an tgg, evidently of this species, found in July, 1829, 

 in a nest in an elm-hedge in Essex. Mr. C. E. Smith notes (31. 53) that "A 

 inest and eggs of this bird [was] taken near Felix Hall, by Mr. William Deal, keeper 

 to T. B. Western, Esq., M.P.,during"the summer of 1857." Mr. Hope says that it 

 breeds at Havering, where it is commoner than it used to be. Dr. Laver says it 

 breeds not unfrequently in the Colchester district. The Tuck Collection contains 

 ■specimens taken from nests at Audley End in June, 1858. In May, 1877, a 

 friend found a nest with eggs in a large old hawthorn in Danbury Park, and in 

 ihe previous year I found an old nest in the woods adjoining, ivhere the bird 

 nests pretty freely, I believe. At Dedham, Mr. Rowland T. Cobbold informs' 

 .me that it is becoming increasingly common, being a constant visitor during win- 

 ter to his buUace-trees, easily splitting open the stones to get at the kernels, 

 •and in summer to his rows of peas. The same might be said of many other 

 parts of the county. 



Tree Sparrow : Passer moiitatius. 



A resident, breeding more or less sparingly in several parts of the 

 •oounty, I believe, though I never found a nest. In winter its num- 

 bers are largely increased by 

 the arrival of flocks from else- 

 where, and it is then fairly 

 common in all, or most, parts 

 of the county. 



Mr. C. Parsons, writing from 

 Southchurch in 1834, says (13) : 



" This bird is a constant winter 

 visitor here. I have shot them re- 

 peatedly in severe weather in Janu- 

 ary, intermixed with the common 

 Sparrows in the farm-yards, and also 

 with Greenfinches, Chaffinches and 

 other small birds in the fields. About a fortnight ago, I caught one at night in a 

 folding-net in a corn-stack, when in quest of common Sparrows. I never saw one 

 here in the summer months." 



TREE SPARKOW, 



