118
NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
writer, and that he quoted a part merely of what this earlier
writer said on the subject. It will be well, therefore, to call
attention to and quote the whole of the passage in question,
which occurs in the Universal Directory for taking alive and
destroying Rats and all other Kinds of four-footed and winged Vermin,
published in 1768, by one Robert Smith, who styles himself
"late Rat-catcher to the Princess Amelia."
Speaking of the Marten Cat, Smith says (pp. 59-60):—
I knew one that used to run tame about the kitchen of the Bald-Face Stag,
on Epping Forest. They have no strong disagreeable scent, like the polecat,
weasel, and other stinking animals of a similar nature, but are reckoned the
sweetest of the vermin kind. I caught several one winter on the aforesaid forest
and sold their skins for four shillings and six pence each, for the sake of the fur,
which is exceedingly good.
This same passage appears also, without variation, in the
second edition, published in 1780; in the third edition, published
in 1786 (pp. 47-48); and in the fourth edition, published in 1812
(p. 42).
There is nothing extremely remarkable in this record; for the
Marten was certainly fairly common in Essex at the period.
This is shown by statements made by Daniel, who says1 that
"They are not found in any great numbers. The most ever met
with by the compiler was in the large woods near Rayleigh, in
Essex."2 He adds that "a farmer in the parish of Terling, in
Essex, was famous for taming this animal and had seldom less
than two." The Marten continued, indeed, to exist in Essex
until long after—even, in fact, to our own day.3 Nevertheless,
it is always well to call attention to and perpetuate old and
definite records of the kind.—Miller Christy, Chignal St. James,
Chelmsford.
BIRDS.
White-Tailed Eagle in Essex.—We could distinctly
notice a White-tailed or Sea-Eagle (Haliaetus albicilla) soaring
over this park [Weald Hall, Brentwood] at midday on Saturday,
February 6th [1909]. It was high up and being mobbed by a
smaller bird, which I could not distinguish. I could see the
Eagle quite clearly through field-glasses. It kept wheeling
quietly round for nearly half-an-hour, and then disappeared.—
Christopher J. H. Tower, in British Birds, 1909.
1 Op. cit., i., pp. 361-2 (1801).
2 He refers, doubtless, to the Bull Wood, at Hockley, and other large adjacent woods.
3 See Dr. Laver's Mammals, etc., p. 50 (1898).