22 2 THE BIRDS OF ESSEX. 



season, and as many as sixty couples have been killed in the course of a few days' 

 shooting on one manor in that county." Edward Doubleday says (15) it has oc- 

 curred at Epping. King, in 1838, says (20) it was then " not uncommon " around 

 Sudbury. Mr. Clarke says (24) of Saffron Walden, that it " breeds here occasion- 

 ally." One, he adds, was killed at Wenden in November, 1848. Mr. C. E. Smith 

 records (31. 53) •' two shot in the autumn of 1857 " near Coggeshall. In 1867 a 

 nest with eleven eggs was taken in a clover-field about five miles from Ingatestone, 

 and in the previous year another nest was found on Sir Charles Smith's estate, 

 near Romford (Jesse — 34. 915). Round Orsett, in 1885, Mr. Sackett says it was 

 " not uncommon," one nest containing eleven eggs being found at Heath Place 

 Farm and two at Mucking. Mr. Hope, who has seen specimens shot within three 

 miles of Harwich, says : " They appear about the first week in September, and are 

 all gone a fortnight later." A correspondent of the Field (29. Aug. 4, i860), 

 who has " met with large bevies in Rochford Hundred, near the Crouch River," 

 expresses the opinion that the chance of killing them is lost by shooting being 

 deferred till Sept. ist. It is found occasionally in both the Colchester and Pagles- 

 ham districts (Laver). Mr. A. Marriage has one^shot at Little Baddow. In 

 September, 1880, English preserved one shot at North Weald — the first Essex 

 example he had ever met with (44. i. xlv.). In May, 1880, several were seen near 

 Chrishall, where they had probably bred. The Rev. M. C. H. Bird informs me of 

 one shot on Canvey Island, Sept. 13th, 1881. 



[Virginian Colin : Ortyx virginianus. 



This is an introduction from America, which has never been able to 

 establish itself. It has been found in Essex. Dr. Bree records one 

 met with near Birch about June 5th, 1S78 (29. June 22)]. 



[Red Grouse : Lagopus scoticiis. 



It is impossible to regard this as an Essex bird, though an individual 

 in a perfectly wild state has been killed in the county. It was shot by 

 Mr. Thomas Aldham, of Ulting Hall, in one of his fields on that farm, 

 whilst partridge-shooting in or about the month of September, two or 

 three years ago. No similar bird was observed at the time. The 

 specimen was stuffed in Maldon, where Mr. Fitch and others saw 

 it in the flesh. It is still in Mr. Aldham's possession at Ulting, where I 

 have seen it, and believe it to be a female. It is less surprising to 

 meet with a Grouse at Ulting than in any other part of the county, for 

 within two miles, as the crow flies, are the extensive commons of 

 Danbury and Little Baddow, where there is a greater expanse of heather 

 than can be found elsewhere in Essex. The most likely supposition is 

 that the bird had strayed from Sandringham, where fourteen brace were 

 turned out in 1S78, of which enough remained in 1881 to propagate three 

 broods ; or it may have come from one or other of the places in Suffolk 

 where attempts were made to introduce it about twenty 3-ears ago 

 (46. 107)]. 



