278 



THE BIRDS OF ESSEX. 



[ Brunnich's Guillemot : Lomvia bniennichi. 



There is not yet sufficient evidence to justify the admission of this 

 species into the Essex list, but Canon Babington mentions (46. 246) 

 one in his own Collection, which was '' purchased at the sale of the Sud- 

 bury Museum ; it formed part of a case of twelve ' British Aquatic Birds, 

 Lot 230 ' ; but although there is considerable reason for presuming that 

 it was obtained near the mouth of the Orwell or Stour, whence so 

 many of the aquatic birds in that Museum came, there is no direct 

 evidence on the point."] 



Black Guillemot : Uria grylle. 



A rare winter visitor. I have only one record of its occurrence in 

 Essex, but it his no doubt been overlooked. 



Dr. Bree (32a) notes that a " female in winter plumage was sent to Ambrose 

 to set up, Dec, 1869 ; shot at Mersea." 



Little Auk : Mergulus alle. 



An irregular and accidental, though not uncommon, visitant during 

 winter, when it is not unfrequently blown inland by severe storms as 



far as the midland 

 counties. 



Henry Doubleday says 

 that in 1832 (10) he saw in 

 a Collection at Colchester a 

 specimen obtained near 

 there, and in the same 

 year he shot another at 

 Walton-on-the-Naze. W. 

 H. Hill met with two near 

 Southminster about 1834 

 (12. viii. 573). Mr. C. 

 Walford records (19. 58) 

 ■, that " about a fortnight 

 ; before the severe frost of 

 ^ last winter (1837-38) set 

 in, two specimens of the 

 ; Little Auk were found in 

 an exhausted state — one in 

 I a gentleman's garden at 

 Witham, and the other in 

 Rivenhall Parish." Yarrell 

 says (14. iii. 359) that after 

 a severe storm in Oct., 1841, 

 he heard of the occurrence 

 of specimens in Essex and other parts of England. One was picked up in a very 

 exhausted state about a mile from Sudbury on Nov. i8th, 1861, after the occur- 

 rence of severe storms. It died during the day (23. 7848). One was shot at 

 Loughton (34. 1867) in or about 1869. A male was picked up alive at North 

 Weald on Nov. nth, 1870 (29. Nov. 26. '70). I have in my possession a specimen 

 shot by our bailiff at Lindsell Hall, near Dunmow, about the year 1871. It occur- 

 red during the winter, after a severe storm and is in winter plumage, though a few 

 dark feathers are appearing on the chest. Another specimen is in possession of 



"'ill I 



W^j 



LITTLE AUKb, suiiiincr, }i. 



