NOTES : ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 291
months before, brought it into the Easter holiday period and so accounted for the
meagre attendance of only 17 members. Letters of regret for non-attendance were
received from various members on holiday.
Before the more formal business was taken, the Curator showed some recent
additions to the Pictorial Survey Collection : and Mr. R. Ward exhibited and
presented to the Museum a Chart of the Thames from London to Gravesend,
dated 1830—33, with corrections from surveys to 1863, showing innumerable
soundings in feet.
Dr. Frank W. Jane, Ph.D., D.Sc., F.L.S., having been duly nominated at the
last meeting, was unanimously elected President of the Club in succession to
Mr. S. Hazzledine Warren, F.G.S.
The retiring President gave an Address on "Some Geological and Prehistoric
Records on the N.W. Border of Essex." At its conclusion the newly elected
President took the chair.
Mr. E. E. Syms, F.R.E.S., exhibited and described a series of specimens of
the Buff Ermine Moth, to illustrate the remarkable variations, especially in bred
individuals, of this species : the examples shown were from the Murie Collection
in the Stratford Museum.
The meeting afterwards adjourned for tea.
NOTES : ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
SOME ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM HOLE HAVEN DISTRICT 1945.
Redwings and Fieldfares were very numerous and fairly tame along railway
embankments during the cold spell at the opening of the year : they stripped all
the bushes of berries and visited in large flocks any unfrozen pools for drinking
purposes.
Stonechat. One $ seen on 17th February.
Short-eared Owl. Two different birds seen at various dates. One of them
was very pale fawn in colouration ; its long rounded wings and rolling flight
typical ; while hawking it was quite oblivious to the presence of large numbers of
people. The other bird was of darker plumage : on one occasion it was seen to
alight upon a post and hawk from that vantage point.
Cormorant. One seen.
Shelduck. Five seen on 22nd February, 30 on 6th March, at least 150 on 9th
March, 92 on 16th March and 90 on 20th March, all on Mucking Flats.
Mallard. About 600 birds were seen on these Flats on 9th March, on the
water.
Teal. Twelve on 16th March.
Pintail. One m. on 9th March.
Scaup. Four seen (1 adult drake) on 22nd February, 9 (2 adult drakes) on 6th
March and 8 (2 adult drakes) on 12th March.
Tufted Ducks. Fifty on 17th February, 60 on 6th March, and 50 on 9th March.
Knot. On 26th January one was shown me by a gunman, freshly shot:
Thames Haven.
Sanderling. An immature bird, its distinctive call-note heard, on 16th March.
Great Crested Grebe. Two on 6th March, on Mucking Flats.
Coot. During the severe weather in January and February the birds deserted
the marshes, keeping entirely to the tidal shallows.
Redshank. The commonest bird on the estuary shores, except the black-headed
Gull. B. King.