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EPPING FOREST. 



Blue Titmouse. Common all the year. 



Cole Titmouse. Not uncommon in gardens, as well as in 

 some parts of the Forest. 



Marsh Titmouse. Common in Wanstead Park and in low- 

 lying parts of the Forest. Its name is misleading, as it 

 is not a marsh bird in any sense. 



Longrtailed Titmouse. Resident and not uncommon. Fam- 

 ilies of ten or more keep together throughout the winter 

 and flit from tree to tree, scouring them for insects. 

 They never come to the lump of fat which is put out- 

 side my house for the other titmice. 



Sand-Martin. Numbers breed in holes in the railway cut- 



LOXGTAILED TITS. 



ting between Leytonstone and Wanstead. They are the 

 earliest of the swallows to appear, often arriving in 

 March. 



House-Martin. Not so common as they ought to be. The 

 vast number of sparrows in the neighbourhood is hostile 

 to their increase. A friend and neighbour increased the 

 number of house-martins' nests on his house from two to 

 ninety, simply by waging unsparing war on the sparrows. 



Chimney Swallow. In the late summer these birds gather 

 in thousands to roost in the reed-bed in the pond in 

 Cook's Folly. This seems to be the general rendezvous 

 for the district, and at sunset they may be seen flying in 

 small companies from every direction towards this point. 

 The confused noise as they swarm like bees to gain a 

 foothold among the reeds is most remarkable. In Au- 

 gust 1855 a pure white swallow was observed at Epping. 



