POACHING IN EPPING FOREST. 
125 
Chingford chaffinches, it may be mentioned, have a special 
reputation among bird-fanciers for the power and sweetness of 
their song, and are sought after accordingly. 
Squirrels are frequently knocked down from the trunks or 
branches of the lofty beeches by lads armed with catapults, and 
by the throwing of short heavy sticks, which, in the coppices 
where the unfortunate rodents can be surrounded, prove deadly 
weapons. 
Some reference should be made, in conclusion, to Nature’s 
own poachers, which are well represented in the forest. Foxes 
breed every year in its northern portions, and, during the past 
winter, one has been repeatedly observed close to Chingford. 
They are crafty thieves, and live on a varied diet of poultry and 
game, but if hungry are prepared to fall back on rats and mice, 
or even frogs and worms. Badgers were believed to be extinct 
until 1894, when a pair were introduced. A new-comer is stated 
to have been seen last autufnn, but the report lacks confirmation. 
Badgers destroy nests of young rabbits, and will take a leveret if 
they have the chance. Polecats and martens have disappeared 
entirely during recent years. Stoats are becoming scarce, but 
weasels are plentiful. Stoats are dangerous foes to hares and 
rabbits, the latter especially. A weasel at times will kill a 
leveret, rabbit or mole, but like the stoat is most destructive to 
rats, voles and mice. The hedgehog is occasionally found in 
dry ditches in secluded spots, but does little hurt beyond de- 
molishing eggs in nests built on the ground. Among the birds 
coming within the category, jays take pre-eminence by reason of 
their number and cunning. They devour quantities of eggs and 
young birds. Jays are hated by poachers, whose presence is 
betrayed by the bird’s harsh scream of alarm, which constitutes 
it the sentinel of the woods. The sparrow-hawk, kestrel, and 
several species of owl, are comparatively common, as well as 
crows and magpies, but none of these are sufficiently numerous 
to do any appreciable harm. Of the reptiles the common snake 
and viper are now but thinly scattered over the forest. In the 
early years of the Corporation’s management a price was set 
on their heads, which nearly led to their extermination. The 
common snake feeds principally on frogs and insects, but the 
viper consumes mice and birds as well as frogs. 
H. Chipperfield. 
Hawfinches. — As regularly as the year comes round my premises are 
visited by hawfinches which breed a mile off. They arrive as soon as the young 
are able to leave the nest ; and the object of their visit is to feed on the wild 
cherries round my house, which they attack when young and unripe, and I 
think they eat the kernel only. As soon as they have cleared the cherries off 
they disappear for the year. They stay all day, and the brood retires in a 
body each evening to their breeding place. 
Market IVestoti, Thetford, 
Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
