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NOTES ON REPORT OF THE ESSEX BIRD
PROTECTION SOCIETY, 1903.
By FRANCIS DENT, Hon. Sec. to the Society.
[Read December 19th, 1903.]
IN spite of the constantly increasing work thrown upon it by
Parliament, the Essex County Council still finds time to
devote its attention, amongst other objects, to the Protection of
Wild Birds. The latest of several orders in Council made by the
Home Secretary, varying and extending the provisions of the
Wild Birds Protection Act, 1880, for the County of Essex, is
dated Dec. 13, 1901, and is summarised in the Report for 1903,
which has just been issued by the Essex Bird Protection
Society. This Society, which was originally formed for the
purpose of calling attention to the necessity of further protection
for some of our rarer wild birds which were in danger of
extinction, continues to do useful work in helping to make the
Protection Order really effective, by employing watchers at
various stations along the coast, to see that the law is observed,
by stimulating the zeal of the County Police by giving small
rewards in cases where extra vigilance has been shown, and by
itself undertaking to prosecute offenders against whom proceedings
would not otherwise be taken in such cases as are brought to its
notice.
From the summary of the Protection Order given in the
report, it will be seen that two separate areas in the County are
specially protected (1) The coast and estuaries, and (2) the
suburban parishes which border upon Epping Forest.
The Essex coast with its network of creeks, saltings and
marshes from Harwich to Shoeburyness forms a natural breeding
ground for a number of birds, among which are included black-
headed gulls, terns, lesser terns, ring plover, redshank, peewit,
sheld-duck, wild duck, teal, pochard, besides many others, and
is the haunt in winter of large numbers of wild fowl. When the
County Council took up the question of Protection, some of
these species were on the verge of extinction, as breeding species
at any rate. The terns, and lesser terns in particular, had
suffered great diminution by the robbing of their nests, which