78 THE COMING OF AGE OF
Mr. Christy has kept this work well up to date by preserving
all the later records, and these will in due course be
communicated to the Club. It must always be a matter of
satisfaction to us in turning over the records of our past work to
know that the Essex Field Club has borne no inconsiderable
part in that movement which has led to the protection of wild
birds of the County under the Acts of Parliament of 1880 as
amended in 1894. The matter was first brought before our
Council by Mr. Christy in 1895, and a petition was drawn up
by our Hon. Secretary on behalf of the Council and sent to the
Essex. County Council the same year. The County Council
appointed a Committee under the Chairmanship of Mr.
Champion Russell to consider our proposals, which proposals
were subsequently accepted (Essex Naturalist, IX., 42,) and
Mr. Russell brought the subject under the notice of our members
in a paper (Ibid. 218) in which he stated that an "Essex Bird
Protection Society" had been called into existence at a public
meeting held at Chelmsford in 1896. That Society is still in
existence and is doing good work—especially in relation to the
coast birds, and its labours have from time to time been recorded
in our pages (Ibid. IX., 255 ; X., 274). The later working and
developments of the Act have also been duly noted (Ibid. X., 133 ;
XL, 10) and the special and successful efforts made by Mr.
Edward North Buxton to secure absolute protection for the
birds of the whole of the Epping Forest district were recognized
by the Club and acknowledged in a formal vote of thanks passed
at the 17th Annual General Meeting in 1897 (Ibid. X., 15; see
also pp. 56 and 276 and XL, 10). Among other contributions to
Essex ornithology I may recall the very interesting discussion
on the sparrow as an agricultural depredator opened at a meeting
of the Club on May 20th, 1882, by the late Lt.-Col. Russell
(Proc. III., xx-xxvii), the paper on the re-appearance of Pallas's
Sand Grouse in 1888, compiled by our Secretary (Essex
Naturalist, II., 61), Mr. Harting's paper on the introduction
of the Tinamu into Essex (Ibid. 102), Mr. Fitch's papers on Essex
Heronries (Ibid. 171) and on the gulls and other birds frequenting
the Tollesbury marshes (Ibid. 193), and Mr. Percy Clark's visits
to the Black-headed Gulls in 1898, 1899 and 1900 (Ibid. X. 388 ;
XL, 184; 312). The general subject of bird-migration was
dealt with by Mr. Fitch in his presidential address in 1890
(Ibid. IV., 1).