260
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
It is probable, although it may take place so gradually that
we do not notice it, that there is a constant flux proceeding in
our avifauna, and it is only when we take a look backward over
a long period of years that we realize that changes have occurred.
Some birds which were at one time common in Essex have
completely disappeared, and when we endeavour to trace their
history it is at times impossible and generally very difficult.
No more striking example of this can be given than the case of
the Raven. Of the bones which I have previously mentioned
as having been unearthed near Colchester twenty were those
of the Raven, so it would seem that at the dawn of the Christian
era this bird was common. It remained a fairly common breeder
along the coast until 1850. Parsons, writing in 1837 of Shoebury,
describes how one winter 50 to 60 of these birds used to come
regularly to a small coppice to roost and in 1866 Lt. Legge
found three nests within six miles of Shoebury. There were still
three nests—two on the shores of the Blackwater and one at
North Fambridge—in 1890, but I know of no evidence to prove
that it nested after that year. The Wood-Lark, which in
neighbouring counties has increased in recent years, has dis-
appeared from Essex, although it was observed once in 1905.
There is nothing to suggest that this bird was ever generally
distributed, but about one hundred years ago it occurred in
some numbers in Epping Forest. It is stated to have been
common also near Saffron Walden, but no date is given. Although
one was killed in Essex as recently as 1925, the Kite can only
be looked upon as being extinct. Its full history is shrouded in
mystery, yet the scraps of information which have drifted to
us suggest that it must have been a common breeder. The
last record of nesting for the county was near Maldon in 1854,
but it could not have been common at any time in the nineteenth
century. The Stone-Curlew is apparently lost to Essex as a
breeder. It had been known to nest near Saffron Walden from
about 1845, but there is no proof that it has nested since 1902.
It still, however, visits the county while on passage. According
to the evidence of Christopher Parsons the Sandwich Tern
nested in bygone days, as he states that in 1834 he took the eggs
at the mouth of the Blackwater. I had hoped that, as this
species had increased so much as a breeder in Norfolk, some