THE PROTECTION OF WILD BIRDS IN ESSEX. 13
" The following details are extracted from letters received
in answer to these queries :—
A. 1. ' It was a very bad season for shore birds on account of very high
tides.'
2. ' For the past three or four years they seen at a standstill—neither
increase or decrease.'
3. ' The floods last year had a great deal to do with the scarcity of birds
this year.'
B. 1. ' The shore birds have increased in almost every case.'
2. ' While these have increased, the wild fowl have considerably
decreased.'
3. ' The breeding grounds were much damaged by the high tide. Many
of the eggs were destroyed, and on the enclosed marshes many of
the young died for want of water, the ditches having been drained
to clear them from the salt water.'
C. ' The birds did well in regard to breeding, but on account of the
great flood of salt water, after the birds were hatched, they got
into the water, and it being salt water, they died. There was no
fresh water for them for some time, as the salt water remained so
long on the marshes.'
D. ' I think on the whole a decrease in this district, and I think that the
floods have heen the means of stopping the breeding of wild fowl
all around this locality, as they have been over-flowed several
times last season.'
E. ' I think we had more Terns and Ring Plover breeding here this year ;
not quite so many ducks, as I think they went where they could
get fresh water. I told you about the gulls. There was not
one nest in my fleets, only a few, very late, in my neighbour's
fleet. They came at the usual time, found the fleets run dry after
the flood of salt water—as we had very little rain they did not fill
up again—so I suppose they did not like the look of it, and went
away ; then they came back again about a week into June. I
found 22 nests on the saltings, with one and two eggs in, and they
managed to hatch them off in between the big tides. So there
was not a tenth part so many as usual, I believe through no other
cause than the flood. I saw the first Ring Plover's nest with two
eggs, on May 13th ; young Terns, some nearly feathered and some
just hatched, on June 26th ; on July 7th I found a Wild Duck sit-
ting hard on the salting; we bad the tide a foot deep in most
places, and must have been three or four inches deep over the nest
two days following. I think she hatched off all right, as I found
the remains of the eggs after in the nest. They could not be fit to
shoot by the 1st of August! I saw one nice brood of Wild Duck
on May 1st.'
F. ' As for the Wild Fowl, they are as scarce this winter as I ever knew
them. From what I have understood, the floods and big tide
affected the ground so that it killed a great many of the young
ducks, and I think the close time ought to be the first of March till
the first of September.'