74 
NATURE NOTES 
added the blue-headed yellow wagtail reported by Yarrell as 
taken as far back as April, 1837. 
By the side of the river in the centre of the marsh, completely 
isolated, stands the White House, an unpretentious inn, where 
for many years existed a large collection of stuffed birds taken 
in the immediate vicinity. Notably among them was that 
extremely rare bird, the cream-coloured courser, shot in 1858. 
The British Museum offered £ 2 ^ for this specimen, but it was 
refused. Other scarce examples included were the smew, ruff 
(and the female bird, the reeve), dotterel, ringed plover, green- 
shank, redshank, water-rail, little stint, sanderling, black tern, 
sooty tern, whimbrel, waxwing, great grey shrike, Lapland 
bunting, jack snipe, dunlin, great black-backed gull, and the 
short-eared owl. Remnants of this collection are still exhibited 
at the house, but the specimens are mostly in a dilapidated 
condition. 
Contiguous to Hackney Marsh, on its further extremity, are 
Stratford Marshes, which in times gone by have had a great 
reputation for birds. In January, 1889, a wounded peregrine 
falcon was picked up. A flock of grey plover were met with 
in the spring of 1890, and one was killed, and in the winter of 
the same year a bearded titmouse was shot. A grey phalarope 
was taken in 1891. 
Beyond Stratford Marshes, that is to say outside the four 
miles’ limit, but at no great distance away, many other scarce 
birds have been recorded. An immature specimen of the 
Mediterranean black-headed gull obtained at Barking Creek 
in 1866, is exhibited at the Natural History Museum. A flock 
of Pallas’s sand-grouse appeared at Barking-side in 1888, and 
several were shot. A great snipe was killed at Forest Gate in 
1889, and a hobby at Plaistow Marshes, about the same period. 
From time immemorial the Lea Marshes have been the 
rendezvous of east-end sportsmen. A few good shots attained 
a local reputation, but the great majority were of the cockney 
tyro order. The present writer — who has known the place 
intimately for upwards of forty years — has on several occa- 
sions undergone his “baptism of fire” from the spent bullets 
of these latter reckless gunners. Shooting, however, is now 
entirely prohibited within the jurisdiction of the London County 
Council, and the Wild Birds Protection Acts are enforced as 
far as possible in other parts. 
During recent years the Lea hereabouts has suffered terribly 
from sewage pollution, as well as by the enormous intake of the 
water companies above Tottenham, which reduces the stream ta 
a minimum. 
H. Chipperfield. 
