136 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
and reach Mill Bay that we meet those features which are so
characteristic of the marshes of Essex. Although the railway
traverses the length of the river from Manningtree to Parkeston,
it does not seriously interfere with the natural features and,
apart from two points, namely Mistley and Parkeston, the
blighting influence of commercialism has not manifested itself.
Before leaving the natural features, mention must be made of
the great bank of shingle which has been driven up at the
entrance to Hamford Water ; this is a most interesting point
for bird observation. Ornithologically the Stour is a very
interesting river, at least so far as winter birds are concerned.
Had it taken its name from the features of its bird-life it cer-
tainly would have been described as the "Wigeon and Coot"
river. When effecting a comparison between the Crouch and
the Blackwater I did so much in favour of the latter. The
Stour has a greater winter bird population than the Blackwater,
but I would not care to say that it is more interesting. If a
cause must be sought for the presence of so many birds it will
be found probably in the direction of the wide stretches of
shallow water, which the Stour, like the Blackwater, possesses.
During the course of my lonely wanderings I have sometimes
framed mental pictures of an Essex river unrealisably alive with
birds. After my visit to the Stour in January, 1924, I came away
feeling that the seemingly impossible had happened, and that,
for once in a way, a day-dream had been realised. The Stour
birds number among their enemies a number of puntsmen
and during my visits I usually saw one or more stalking the
Coots and Wigeon, or the presence of the hunter would be tig-
nailed by the dull boom of the punt-gun and a cloud of birds
rising in the air.
Migration in relation to the County of Essex is a question
about which we should know more. I made reference to the
subject when dealing with the birds of the Blackwater, and al-
though what information I have is less than scanty, I wish to
reintroduce the question, if only with the object of drawing
attention to the need for information. The chief difficulty is
to be able to interpret correctly those movements which one
may observe, to effect a true correlation. The projecting
Norfolk coast is renowned as a migrational route, especially
the Blakeney-Cley stretch. In the middle of September, 1924,