FIELD NOTES ON ESSEX ORNITHOLOGY. 
*9 
and the droppings of mice. I at once recognised that it was one 
of the feeding-platforms referred to by Mr. Christy in the paper 
he read before the Club on the 25th January last. 1 As it was 
not convenient to remove the platform at the time, I left it and 
forgot all about it, so that it remained in the hedge until last 
August, when I cut it out. The seeds and droppings had by then 
been washed away by rain, but I exhibit it to-night for what it 
is worth. 
[Mr. Nicholson has presented the specimen to the Club’s Museum. Ed.j 
1 Hsssx Naturalist, xix , p. 18. 
FIELD NOTES ON ESSEX ORNITHOLOGY. 
Bv FRED J. STUBBS. 
(Head 22nd February, Jonj,) 
WITH ADDITIONS. 
(With two Plates.) 
T HE following notes on Essex ornithology are based on 
observations made during the past ten years in that part 
of the county lying south of a line drawn from Harlow to the 
Blackwater. At one time or another, from 1909 to 1919, all 
parts of this area have been visited ; but, on some occasions, 
the object of such excursions has been other than ornithological 
work. In going through my notebook I find that many of my 
records, interesting enough to myself, are too trivial for pub¬ 
lication here—they contain nothing new, of county interest 
at any rate ; some have already been published elsewhere, with 
little or no mention of the actual locality where the observations 
were made ; and not a few of my minor discoveries have cancelled 
themselves after my recent careful reading of Mr. Miller Christy’s 
two chief publications on the ornithology of the County 1 , which, 
I need hardly add, have been freely used during my residence 
in and near Essex. 
Best acquainted with a northern avifauna, 1 find Essex 
to be extremely rich in terrestrial birds ; but, on the contrary, 
my success with aquatic species has been remarkably poor. More 
than once 1 have spent a whole day on some desolate marshland 
of the southern or eastern coast of the county without meeting 
1 Birds of Essex, 1890, and “ Birds ” in the Victoria Hist. Essex, vol .1, 1902. 
