ESSEX PRE-ORNITHOLOGY. 21
several Essex references, dating from the end of the 18th to the
early years of the 19th century. Writing of the Red-legged
Partridge he states, "They did not breed numerously at St.
"Osyth (Lord Rochford's) the soil was not so favourable, yet
"even here they increased, and now and then a covey of them
"was found some miles from his Lordship's domain. The
"Compiler, in 1777, found within two miles of Colchester a covey
"of fourteen." He managed to shoot one, but he adds that
he did not shoot another until November, 1799. Among
many curious remarks regarding geese we notice "That vast
"numbers of geese are driven annually to London from distant
"countries, to supply the markets; among them all the super-
"annuated Geese and Ganders (called Cagmags), which by a
"long course of plucking, prove uncommonly tough and dry.
"In 1783 one drove of above nine thousand passed through
"Chelmsford; two or three thousand are common." In his
chapter on Partridges we read "Upon the farm of Lion Hall
"in Essex, belonging to Col. Hawker, in 1788, the following
"extraordinary incident of a Partridge depositing her eggs, was
"known to many persons. This bird chose the top of an oak
"pollard to make her nest, and this tree too had one end of the
"bars of a stile, where there was a footpath, fastened into it,
"and by the passengers going over the stile before she sat close,
"she was disturbed and first discovered." He tells us that the
bird eventually hatched her sixteen, and the brood managed
to scramble to the ground. Again "In 1793, on a farm occupied
"by Mr. Pratt, near Terling, in Essex, a Partridge nest was
"found in a fallow field with thirty-three eggs; twenty-three
"of the eggs were hatched and the birds went off, four more
"had live birds in them; the number of the eggs was ascertained
"before hatching, to decide a bet laid by a person, who refused
"to credit so unusual a production; the female covered all
"the eggs, seven of which in the centre were piled in a curious
"manner."
19TH CENTURY.
Writing in 1800 of the Woodcock the sport-loving parson
informs us that it is the wind and not the moon, which controls
the arrival and departure of this bird, and that "they do not
"come gregariously but separate and dispersed." If the winds
were not propitious they were held up along the coast, and