FIELD NOTES ON ESSEX ORNITHOLOGY. 89
and the droppings of mice. I at once recognised that it was one
of the feeding-platforms referred to by Mr. Christy in the paper
he read before the Club on the 25th January last.1 As it was
not convenient to remove the platform at the time, I left it and
forgot all about it, so that it remained in the hedge until last
August, when I cut it out. The seeds and droppings had by then
been washed away by rain, but I exhibit it to-night for what it
is worth.
[Mr. Nicholson has presented the specimen to the Club's Museum. Ed.]
1 Essex Naturalist, xix . p. 18.
FIELD NOTES ON ESSEX ORNITHOLOGY.
By FRED J. STUBBS.
(Read 22nd February, 1919.)
WITH ADDITIONS.
(With two Plates.)
THE following notes on Essex ornithology are based on
observations made during the past ten years in that part
of the county lying south of a line drawn from Harlow to the
Blackwater. At one time or another, from 1909 to 1919, all
parts of this area have been visited; but, on some occasions,
the object of such excursions has been other than ornithological
work. In going through my notebook I find that many of my
records, interesting enough to myself, are too trivial for pub-
lication here—they contain nothing new, of county interest
at any rate; some have already been published elsewhere, with
little or no mention of the actual locality where the observations
were made; and not a few of my minor discoveries have cancelled
themselves after my recent careful reading of Mr. Miller Christy's
two chief publications on the ornithology of the County1, which,
I need hardly add, have been freely used during my residence
in and near Essex.
Best acquainted with a northern avifauna, I find Essex
to be extremely rich in terrestrial birds; but, on the contrary,
my success with aquatic species has been remarkably poor. More
than once I have spent a whole day on some desolate marshland
of the southern or eastern coast of the county without meeting
1 Birds of Essex, 1890, and "Birds" in the Victoria Hist. Essex, vol .1, 1902.