96 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
seen—one near Great Wakering on the 31st December 1909
passing quite close to me as I sat at the edge of the sands; I
cannot trace the dates for two others seen near Tilbury (1910)
and Woodford (1911).
I see the Merlin occasionally in winter, and in the early part
of 1915 an individual haunted Theydon Bois for some days.
Other dates for the same locality are 28th November 1915 and
19th January 1918.
Some time in the summer of 1910 I saw an undoubted Hobby
near Belhus Park, although I find now that so interesting an
experience passed unmentioned in my note-book.
Perhaps here may be inserted the record of a strange bird
which flew across the lake at Highams Park to settle in a neigh-
bouring field. My companions at the time were those accom-
plished observers, Miss G. Lister and Miss Hibbert-Ware, and we
were all at a loss to name the creature, which had the flight of a
falcon, but a most un-hawk-like voice. After a little trouble
we were able to get a better view, finding the bird to be a Rose-
ringed Parakeet. It was, in spite of the season (22nd January
1916), in obvious health and strength; and it may be added
that six months later, two miles above Abridge, I was again
befooled by the familiar but unrecognised note of the same species,
if not the same individual.
Many visits to the bird-haunted coast north of Shoebury
produce a few records of Brent Geese, never in large numbers;
and once I flushed an individual far from the estuary on the
marshes near Vange. In October 1910 a skein of Grey Geese
flew overhead near South Weald, and from their noisy calls I
wondered if they were White-fronted Geese. On the 22nd April
1918 a skein of fifteen Geese flew over Theydon Bois station,
quite low down; but although a dozen people had a good view
of the birds, I did not pick them up until they were right in the
eye of the sun, and unrecognisable. I watched them circle around
the Sewage Farm marsh, but then too far away for identification.
Enquiries of my luckier fellow-passengers did no more than
prove that they were "Grey Geese"—that is, showing no signs
of black, and therefore not Canada Geese. On the 23rd March
1918 Lieut. N. Abbott saw three Grey Geese on the lake at South
Weald; and on the 20th April (two days before the Theydon
visit) after a close examination through X12 glasses, he came to