262
THE BIRDS OF WEST THURROCK MARSH.
BY PERCY W. HORN.
IF we take a map of Essex and look at the southern boundary
of the county we shall note that, midway between Purfleet
and Grays, the river makes a sharp bend, enclosing a tract of
land which is roughly in the form of an obtuse-angled triangle,
having for its base or N. side the L.T. and S. Railway, and for
its remaining sides the River Thames.
Practically the whole of this area is below sea-level, and
doubtless at one time was a huge salt marsh.
It is still termed a "marsh" but its low-lying fields, protected
from the encroachment of the river by a sea-wall, and intersected
by numerous dykes, are now grazing land, occupied by flocks of
sheep and cattle.
Two small corners, however, have escaped the reclaiming
hand of man and still retain something of their old-time character.
The first corner is a swampy reed-bed of considerable size, lying
inside the sea-wall towards the Purfleet end of the triangle. This
area lies too low for drainage, and it will probably remain a
swamp until enterprising authorities begin to clump the rubbish
of the metropolis into it.
The other small corner lies at the apex of the triangle where
it juts out into the Thames. On the map it is marked Stone
Ness. More commonly it is called "the Beacon," because of the
hideous skeleton lighthouse which disfigures it.
Here the sea wall, on account of the presence of a creek with
numerous ramifications, turns landward right across the pro-
montory until it reaches the other side, leaving an extent of some
fifty acres exposed to the mercy of the tides. Normally the
water does not rise above the level of the creek, but at spring
tides the whole salting is inundated to a depth of two or three
inches right up to the base of the sea-wall. Lying at some
considerable distance from habitations, the salting is seldom
visited except by a casual collector of driftwood, hence it is not
surprising to find that migratory shore-birds using the Thames
estuary have come to look upon this little salting as a pleasant
oasis in the desert of cement factories which lies on either side.
Commonest of the birds on the marsh are the Gulls.
They seldom alight on the salting, but they have a most