266
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
river-estuaries and his excellent photographs which illustrate them : the
substance of these articles is incorporated in the volume now issued.
In his Introduction the author refers to the favourable influence upon
the avifauna of the county brought about by the formation of the chain
of reservoirs along the valley of the lower Lea, and also, in lesser degree,
by the multiplication of sewage farms in Essex ; and he rightly emphasizes
the effect upon the bird-life of varying types of agricultural crops, which
are themselves dependent upon the superficial geological features. A
tabulated list of the birds, whether breeders or winter visitants, met with
in the cultivated areas, in woodlands, in fresh waters, on the marshes
and saltings, and on our limited Essex extent of shingly beach, is a useful
feature of the book.
The author admits 281 birds as entitled in his opinion to the status
of "Essex birds" ; of this total rather more than half (149) are but
irregular visitors, some of them of extremely rare occurrence.
In his systematic account Mr. Glegg follows the arrangement and
adopts the trinominal method of Witherby's Practical Handbook of British
Birds. In the case of rarer species, or those of doubtful status, the
evidence for earlier records within the county is given and weighed before
the species is admitted to the author's list ; and the present whereabouts
of the actual specimens, in one or other of the County Museums or in
private collections, is usually given. Some of Miller Christy's admitted
species arc rejected, after due consideration of the yet available data.
Some omissions may be pointed out. Mr. Glegg omits to note that
the Golden Oriole taken in Birch Holt about the year 1850 is now pre-
served in the Essex Museum, Stratford, having been given by Mrs. Ingle
to the late Dr. Laver and by him presented to the Museum in 1895. A more
important omission concerns the two eggs of the Kite from Maldon 1854,
which, as Mr. Glegg remarks, "constitutes the latest nesting record" of
this bird in our county ; but he fails to add that these eggs also are in the
Essex Museum, Stratford, to which they were given by Mr. Miller Christy
in 1907.
An excellent coloured contour map of the county, a remarkably
complete bibliography and a full index, are other good features of a
work which must take rank as a classic, indispensable to bird-students
not only in Essex but throughout the country.
The book is illustrated by twenty photographs, one of which we
are, by courtesy of the publishers, permitted to reproduce (Plate XIX).
NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
Badger-Hunting. In Cruel Sports for July, 1929 (the organ of the
League for the Prohibition of Cruel Sports) Mr. Clifford W. Greatorex,
F.Z.S., under the heading "Friend Brock," writes a spirited condemnation
of the custom of badger-digging and expresses the detestation, which all
nature-lovers must share, of this degraded form of so-called "sport."—Ed.
Ringed Plover Nesting Inland in Essex.—On May 31st, 1918, a nest
of Kinged Plover, with four eggs, was found by a man who was hoeing peas