NOTES: ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
109
Badgers at Bocking.—There is a strong colony of Badgers in a wood
near Bovingdon Hall. Two have been recently killed, one by foxhounds,
but there are still signs of several being at home.—Alfred Hills.
Spotted Redshank in Essex.—While shrimp trawling on the Stour
River, about three miles above Harwich, on October 9th, 1921, I heard
the call-note of a Spotted Redshank (Tringa erythropus). On sailing close
to shore to make certain, I heard it again more distinctly. On the next
day I was at the same place in a punt and again heard the note many times,
during the tide, but could not get close and failed to pick out the bird from
the flocks of Redshanks it was with. I am well acquainted with the
Spotted Redshank, and believe its call to be too distinctive to be con-
fused with any other wader.—C. E. Hamond, in British Birds, xv., Jany.
1922, p. 190.
Smew and Black-necked Grebes in Essex.—Mr. William E. Glegg
records (in British Birds, xvi., p. 26) the occurrence of a female Smew
(Mergus albellus) on the Walthamstow Reservoirs on March 18th, 1922,
and several pairs of Black-necked Grebe (Podiceps n. nigricollis), in breeding
plumage, on the Blackwater, near Bradwell, on April 15th, 1922.—Ed.
Arctic Skua in Essex in June.—An Arctic Skua (Stercorarius par-
asiticus) was seen on June 10th, 1922, by me and three others, at Bradfield,
Essex. It was of the dark form and when first seen was circling over the
river, but, apparently attracted by a terrier which I had with me, it flew
up to us and circled two or three times over us at a height of about 100
feet, then made off inland, due west.—Walter B. Nichols, in British
Birds, xvi., July 1922, p. 55.
Monotropa Hypopitys (L.) in Epping Forest.—A specimen of this
rare plant was gathered by Mr. Conway Gould, of Loughton, in Great
Monk Wood, under hawthorn bushes, on July 16th, 1922, and has been
presented to the Club's Museum at Stratford. The Yellow Bird's nest
has only once before been recorded from the Forest: in July 1887 tho
late James L. English found several plants in Epping Forest (see note
in Essex Nat., vi., 1892, p. 131).—Percy Thompson.
Coys' Garden at North Ockendon.—Mr. R. T. Gunther calls atten-
tion in the Times of March 13, 1922, to his recent discovery that the Ivy-
leaved Toadflax was first introduced into Britain, at the beginning of the
17th century, into William Coys' garden, at "Stubbers," North Ocken-
don. Coys' garden-list of 1617 gives the first mention of the plant in this
country.
John Goodyer notes on September 20, 1621: "I never saw this growinge
but in the garden of my faithfull good friend Mr. William Coys in North-
okington in Essex, and in my garden at Droxford [Hants] of seeds
receaved from him in Anno 1618."
It was in Coys' Essex garden, also, that, in 1604, Yucca gloriosa first
flowered in this country.—Editor.
Abundance of Vespidae in 1921.—Wasps appear to have been much
more numerous in many parts of the country in 1921 than of late years.
On the Copped Hall Estate, near Epping, which covers about a third of
a square mile, over 420 nests have been destroyed during the past season.