258
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
as twenty-two of the twenty-five specimens have been definitely
dated, as they were associated with objects of Belgic-British
culture of the half-century ending A.D. 43 at latest. Two
other bones are probably of the same age and the third bone,
that of a Swan, was taken from a level dateable A.D. 25-50.
The discovery of all these bones is of much importance, but
especially the anterior half of the sternum of a domesticated
fowl. The finding of this bone proves for the first time that
this bird was already in the country when the Romans appeared.
Although the evidence is not always so convincing as the
foregoing yet knowledge of the earlier condition of the birds of
Essex has been obtained from various old documents. From
a bill-of-fare dated A.D. 1059 emanates a suggestion that the
Crane was found in the county in those times. From Holin-
shed's Chronicles of England we obtain an account of how
Short-eared Owls appeared in numbers at Southminster in 1580,
after the appearance of many voles and of a similar
happening at Foulness in 1648. Fuller's History of the Worthies
of England, published 1662, had no ornithological purpose, but
it supplies us with a very early account of an Essex gullery
and it is safe to say that when Henry Teonge, chaplain on
Assistance, recorded in his diary how, on July 8th, 1678, they
had taken "above 10 douzen of young puetts" from the same
gullery he did not dream that he was recording ornithological
matter. In similar manner Mary, Countess of Warwick, passes
on to us evidence of the existence of the Red Kite between
1625 and 1678. From an advertisement in Addison's Spectator
of March 4th, 1712, we learn that the Great Bustard was then
a not uncommon bird. Some counties have derived valuable
ornithological information from the churchwardens' accounts. 
The amount of such matter for Essex is almost negligible,
but I hope that this may be remedied by the transcription of
more of these documents.
In the first half of the nineteenth century direct contributions
to the subject commenced to appear and collections such as
those of Parsons and Hoy to be formed. The volume of the
matter has steadily increased and we have progressed from
short notes of the earlier days to papers and then to books.
As a consequence we have a comprehensive knowledge of the