240 THE BIRDS OF ESSEX. 



Family SCOLOPACID^. 



Avocet : Recurvirostra avocetta. Locally, " Crooked-bill." 

 Formerly a not uncommon summer visitor, but now only a rare 

 visitant to England. The only records of its appearance in Essex I 



have been able to discover are the fol- 

 lowing : — 



Dale, mentions it (2. 402) under the 

 name " Crooked-bill." He says it is met with 

 " in these eastern parts [about Harwich] fre- 

 quently. The first time I did see it, was on an 

 Island below Maldon, called Northey, anno 

 1700. In the summer time." At this time of 

 year, it must undoubtedly have been breeding, 

 as it used also to do in Sussex, Kent, Suffolk, 

 Norfolk, Lincolnshire, &c. On the north side 

 of the Island, as Mr. E. A. Fitch has informed 

 me, there is still a creek known, and marked on 

 some maps, as "Awl Creek," which name is with very little doubt a relic of the 

 time when the Avocet or '' Awl-bill " bred on its banks. Such survivals are very inter- 

 esting. Mr. Hope remarks that Avocets " oftenland in the winter time." He adds, 

 " One gunner on the Main shot eight at one shot. The late Col. Russell bought them 

 for £\." Several are still among the birds he left, while a fine adult from Essex, 

 now in the Norwich Museum, presented by Col. Russell, was, doubtless, one of 

 the same lot. Mr. Hope also informs me that, on Apr. iith, 1889. about 5 p.m., 

 four were observed to fly in from the east of the Cork Sands. They flew about 120 

 yards high, and, curving round, took a northerly course up the Deben River. 



Black-winged Stilt : Hiviantopus candidus. 

 A rare straggler to Britain, which is included in this list on very 

 slight, though I think sufficient, grounds. 



Mr. Clarke notes (24) that one was seen about 1820 round the pond at his 

 residence, " The Roos," near Saffron Walden. He still remembers being hur- 

 riedly called by a man to see " a bird with legs a yard long," but was only in 

 time to see it fly away. 



Red-necked Phalarope : Phalaropus hyperboreus. 



A regular, though uncommon, passing migrant in spring and 

 autumn, when on its way to and from its breeding stations on the 

 islands in the extreme north of Scotland. 



Mr. Bond met with one or two at Southend late in August, 1842 (23. 40). 

 An old male, in winter plumage, was taken on the lake in Debden Park on Oct. 

 15th, 1881, after a severe storm (44. ii. Ixxx). Specimens were shot near Har- 

 wich in Aug. and Sept., 1876 (Kerry — 40. i. 52). The late Mr. Bond's Collec- 

 tion contained a specimen, in summer plumage, which was shot in the summer of 

 1850, whilst running between the rails near the station at Stratford (40. xiii.416). 



