ASIONID.^—0 WLS. 



157 



Mr. Clarke's notes show that it used to be fairly common at Saffron Walden. He 

 notes "several in 1854" (24). They are now not uncommon there in winter, one 

 or two reaching Mr. Travis annually. In the winter of 1880-81, from the end of 

 November to the beginning of March, they were very common, several sometimes 

 being sent to Mr, Travis in the course of a single day. Just after the tremendous 

 snow-storm of January i8th, a fllock of twelve was seen at Littlebury and another 

 of seven at Rickling. In the following winter they were again unusually abundant 

 from November 1st onwards. On December 30th, 1881, I watched one for fully 

 ten minutes beating systematically over the magnificent lawn between Audley End 

 House and the River Cam. Twice while I watched it, it caught and ate some- 

 thing. At Orsett, a few are generally shot during the autumn (Sackett). Round 

 Harwich, according to Mr. Kerry, it is common during the autumn migration. It 

 was especially numerous there during the week ending Nov. 4th, 1876, when a 

 great many were shot (40. i. 52). Mr. Kerry adds : " Whilst shooting on the Bent- 

 lings near Walton-on-the-Naze, on Aug. 4th, 1884, I saw three of these birds 

 two of which were shot. No doubt they were bred there." It is difficult to avoid 

 the conclusion that they were really bred on the spot, as Mr. Kerry surmises, 

 especially as Mr. Kerry informs me that a pair undoubtedly bred there in 1889. 

 He writes : — 



" They made their nest in the rough grass on an island, near Little Oakley, 

 and some of the young Owls were caught befcjre they were alDle to fly. I saw an 

 old bird hawking over the bentlings in the sunshine on the afternoon of July 

 31st" (40. xiii. 453). 



In 1SS4, one was observed at Languard Point as earl}- as Aug. 20th (42). 

 Hollinshed, in his Chronicles (1587. vol. iii. p. 131$), saj's : — 

 "About Hallontide last past [1580], in the marishes of Danesey Hundred, in 

 a place called Southminster, in the countie of Essex, a strange thing hapned : 

 there sodainlie appeared an infinite multitude of mice, which, overwhelming the 

 whole earth in the said marishes, did sheare and knaw the grasse by the rootes, 

 spoyling and tainting the same with their venimous teeth, in such sort that the 

 cattell which grazed thereon were smitten with a murreine, and died thereof ; 

 which vermine by policie of man could not be destroyed, till at the last it came to 

 passe that there flocked together all about the same marishes such a number of 

 Ovvles as all the shire was not able to yeeld : whereby the marsh-holders were 

 shortly deliuered from the vexation of the said mice." 



Stow, in his Annales of Etigland (^i6o~). p. 1166), makes the same statement in 

 almost identical words. In his second edition (161 5), he again repeats the story 

 adding, "The like of this was also in Kent." Speed also mentions the circum- 

 stance. Joshua Childrev, too, in his Britania Baconica, or the Natural Rarities of 

 England, Scotland and Wales (r66o. p. 100), gives a similar account, adding " It is 

 reported that in 1648 there happened the like again in Essex." Elsewhere he in- 

 forms us that 1580 was " an extream dripping warm year, and a mild and moist 

 winter." Lilly, in \\\s Merliniis Anglicus Jmiior^^MhYx'sat.AHGOMt 1664, also alludes to 

 an invasion of mice at Southminster in 1660. Chi Idrey's account of the occurrence 

 is often quoted, but curiously the earlier accounts seem to have been overlooked. 

 All the different accounts of the invasion above referred to are obviously copied 

 from Hollinshed, to whom credit should accordingly be given. It is clear, how- 

 ever, that the remarks by Fuller in his Worthies of England (1662. p. 348) are 

 quite original and are not copied from Hollinshed or any other chronicler. He 

 says : — 



" I wish the sad casualties may never return which lately have happened in 

 this County [of Essex] : the one [in] 1581, in the Hundred of Dengy (Stow: 

 Chron. Anno Citai) ; the other [in] 1648, in the Hundred of Rochford and lie of 



