i88 



THE BIRDS OF ESSEX. 



Family CICONIID^. 



WIIITE STOKK, 1/30. 



White Stork : Ciconia alba. 



An occasional straggler to Ijritain, which has once or twice been 

 killed in Essex. 



Yarrell says (25. ii. 556) "one was shot 

 near Yarmouth in May, 1842, and Tliomas 

 Thornhill, Esq., favoured me with a notice 

 of one killed in Esse.x during the same 

 month."* In the last edition of his work, it is 

 staled (37. iv. 220) that" several examples have 

 also been obtained or observed in Suffolk and 

 '"■-■, Ivssex." Two are reported to have been cap- 

 tured near Tillinghani, in Jan. 1S79 {C/uhiis- 

 ford Chronicle, Jan. 31). 

 Black Stork : Ciconia nii^ra. 



Another rare and occasional straggler to Britain, which has oc- 

 curred once in Essex. 



Dr. Bree records (29. Apr. 23) that a fine female was killed on or about April 

 I2th, i88i,on the Stour at Stoke-by-Nayland. It was shot by Mr. W. Frost 

 Mortimer of that parish and was preserved by Ambrose of Colchester. This 

 specimen was seen in 1888 in the possession of Mr. Mortimer, at Hastings, 

 by Mr. J. IT. Gurney, jur., who describes it as " a splendid bird and well stuffed." 

 Mr. Mortimer informed Mr. Gurney that he shot it in the month of May, and that it 

 was very tame. Strictly speaking, this is a Suffolk specimen. Canon Babington 

 says (46. 241) it was shot by Mr. Frost Mortimer, in a meadow on the Suffolk 

 side of the Stour in May, 188 1, after having been observed flying down the river 

 valley, towards the sea, by Col. Rowley. Its crop was full of gudgeon.f Mr. 

 Fitch has kindly obtained the following additional particulars from Mr. Mortimer, 

 who still resides at Hastings, but does not now possess the bird, having sold it 

 about twoiyearsagofor;^io toSir\''auncey II. Crewe, of Calke Abbey, Derbyshire. 

 Mr. Mortimer says that he saw the bird, the day before it was shot, in his fields at 

 Boxfnrd. He put it up, and its mode of flying with its neck out, as it flew down 

 the river, showed him ationce that it was not a Heron. On the following morning 

 it was reported to one of Col. Rowley's keepers as having been seen in one of 

 the ponds on the estate, but in the afternoon, which was wet, it was reported by 

 one of Mr. Mortimer's men 10 be then sitting perched on some rails in one of 

 his fields. On his approach it flew into the back-river, where he got within five 



* In the 3rd Ed. (30. ii. 558) ihudate differs and the passage reads : one " was shot at Hrey- 

 don,''near Yarmouth, in 1852, and Thomas Thornhill Esq., favoured me with a notice of one 

 killed in Essex.during the same year." 



tThe specimen said (37. iv. 227) to have been "killed betweeen July and 8th of September, 

 18S3, near Kainham, in Essex "^(40. viii. 429) is not an Essex specimen at all, having been killed 

 at Rainliain in Kent. 



