THE
ESSEX NATURALIST:
BEING THE
Journal of the Essex Field Club
VOLUME XXV.
OUR FRONTISPIECE.
THIS pleasing view of our Essex coast is from an oil painting
by the late Henry Cole and depicts Beacon Hill, St. Osyth,
with the Martello Tower, then occupied as a residence by the
Cole family, as they were in 1902.
At that time this was a fine stretch of quiet coastline, the
haunt of wading birds and profuse with wild flowers, as yet
unspoilt by "development." To-day the natural charm of the
district is marred by many bungalows and beach huts and the
quiet restfulness of the scene is irretrievably gone.
ESSEX PRE-ORNITHOLOGY.
(Being a Presidential Address delivered on 30th March, 1935.)
By WILLIAM E. GLEGG, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U.
THIS paper includes all the matter relative to the subject
known to the author. It is based on all that has been
published in The Essex Naturalist and many other works
whose titles will be found in the list of references. The present
writer does not accept responsibility for the validity of the
quotations. In the interests of the promotion of a subject it
is important that accessibility should not be forgotten. That
this may be facilitated I have added a systematic list, so that
the information relating to a particular species may be readily
found.
The extent of British ornithology is very limited when com-
pared with the known history of our islands. C. Merrett's
Pinax Rerum Naturalium Britannicarum, published in 1666,
supplied us with the earliest list of British Birds. The Or-
nithology of Willoughby and Ray, this being of peculiar interest
to us, was published in 1678. John Ray, a native of Essex,
although his studies were mainly botanical, is described as the