56 THE LATE CHRISTOPHER PARSONS.
volumes of meteorological observations, extending from 1834 to May, 1869,
and there are daily observations of wind, thermometer, rainfall, barometer, and
numerous notes from January, 1841, to the latter date. I have twice visited the
collection of birds ; on the second occasion Mr. J. E. Harting and Mr. Miller
Christy were with me, and we looked carefully at every specimen. We made the
following notes on some of the birds in the collection :—
White-tailed Eagle: adult, South Shoebury, August 1st, 1835.
Ring Ouzel. m Dawes Heath, Thundersley ; m shot by Mr. G. Asplin, April
28th, 1840. Neither of these is the specimen referred to above by Mr. Benton.
Dartford Warbler, m South Shoebury Common, November, 1837.
Fire-crest. No label.
Rock Pipit. New England, December, 1832.3
Snow Bunting. New England, 1830.
Great Spotted Woodpecker. Little Wakering, Mr. Rumble, 1848.
Great Plover. Shot in ploughed field, Shoebury, by Mr, H, M. Mason,
January 10th, 1832.
Dotterel. Two young. New England Creek, 1830.
Ringed Plover. f shot Foulness, May 23rd, 1838, and took her nest of 4
eggs.
Wood Sandpiper. New England, July 24th, 1837.
Black-tailed Godwit. New England, August 1834 ; May 23rd, 1836.
Ruff. "Two shot out of a small lot by my father, Lower Fleet, New England,
May, 17th, 1833." Young before moulting, Ringwood Saltings, Foulness, Sep-
tember 27th, 1838.
Brown Snipe. Label lost, but entered in Mr. Parsons' list as shot and stuffed
by himself.
Little Stint. New England, August 27th, 1835 ; September 6th, 1836.
Temminck's Stint. Young, autumn; no date. Nearly acquired its winter
plumage. Lower Fleet, New England, August 25th, 1835.
Purple Sandpiper, m of first winter, shot by Mr. Calicro on Southend Beach,
November 10th, 1837; Shoebury Shore, January 7th, 1835.
Barnacle Goose. New England, December nth, 1830.
Pintail Duck. Old male, shot at flight by Mr. H. M. Mason, on Shoebury.
Shore, January, 1832.
In the collection are several birds received from T. C. Heysham and Frederick
Ward.
There is also in the Institute a parcel of MSS. apparently relating to a work
on our shore-birds, projected by Mr. Parsons. The notes are somewhat voluminous,
and the corrections most frequent; but to these papers, doubtless, Mr. Christy
will give further attention in connection with his "Birds of Essex," now in pre-
paration—we could not examine them fully. The "List of 256 Birds shot and
stuffed by Mr. Christopher Parsons "does not contain many particulars of localities,
and at the bottom we read "20 other birds, names unknown, and 63 duplicates in
collection."
There is one box of Lepidoptera in the Southend Institute; this contains
nothing noteworthy, excepting, perhaps, two specimens of Limacodes testudo. Mr.
S. W. Squier has six other boxes of insects, and Mr. Benton one, all of which I
hope to look through shortly. It was Mr. Parsons who discovered the "Essex
Emerald" (P. smaragdaria) as a British moth (see Essex Naturalist, i, 120),
and he is again referred to in E. N., ii, 49, in connection with the attacks of
Bruchus on beans.
3 New England is one of the small cluster of islands on the S.W. side of Foulness, between the
sea and the winding creeks Communicating with Broomhill river.—Ed.