142 THE ESSEX NATURALIST
until out of sight. I captured one of these and Mr. .E. F. Syme kindly
identified it as the beetle Aphodius prodromus Brahm. Many of the gulls
were flying little higher than the tops of the trees (mostly mature Oaks),
but some circled at an estimated height of 300 feet. These latter were not
seen to take insects. Two Rooks joined the flock for a few minutes, but were
not seen to take insects and soon flew off.
C. B. Pratt.
Late breeding of Swift. At Castle Hedingham on August 29th, 1948
Mr. Bernard Ward and I watched a Swift (Apus a. apus) enter a hole in the
Norman keep. It remained in the hole for several minutes before we saw it
leave. The visit was soon repeated and again the bird stayed so long in the
hole that we came to the conclusion that it was still feeding young.
C. B. Pratt.
Little Ringed Plover breeding in Essex. Four pairs of the Little Ringed
Plover (Charadrius dubius curonicus) bred on an area of gravel and shallow
pools within 20 miles of St. Paul's in 1947. (British Birds, February, 1948.)
This is a new breeding record for Essex. The species bred again at the
same locality in 1948 when two pairs were proved to have bred and four
other pairs showed breeding behaviour. Two adults with fledged young
were seen at another locality on June 21st, 1948. A full account of the
occurrences is given in British Birds, December, 1948, by Mr. E. R. Par-
rinder ; the observations quoted above being made by the author and Messrs.
R. C. Homes and K. Mitchell.
Birds on the Essex Coast. I have seen the following interesting birds
during 1948 :
Pied Flycatcher (Muscicapa h. hypoleuca), a male, North Fambridge.
September 20th.
Green Sandpiper (Tringa ochropus), on marshes North Fambridge,
October 17th and October 31st ; Walton-on-Naze, July 17th.
Blue-headed Wagtail (Motacilla f. flava), a male, North Fambridge,
May 16th.
(Mrs.) I. Rainier.
Birds at Parndon in 1948. Mr. Geoffrey Dent writes from Parndon that
birds continue to show recovery. Some species wiped out by the hard
winter of 1946-7 are reappearing. The Long-tailed Tit bred again; the
Kingfisher is still scarce, but one was seen ; Woodpeckers of all three species
are again increasing; the Song-Thrush, Mistle-Thrush and Hedge-Sparrow
are still far below normal numbers. He saw no Red-backed Shrikes locally
and the Tree-Pipit was scarce.
Epping Forest Plants. On July 4th, 1948, I observed plants of theGreater
Spearwort (Ranunculus Lingua L.) in flower at the edge of Warner's Pond
("The Firs"), Woodford Green, where they continued to bloom throughout
that month and into August. I had not previously seen plants of this species
in the neighbourhood of Epping Forest.
A vigorous colony of Euphorbia virgata W. and K. still persists at Wood-
ford on an undeveloped building site by Grenville Gardens. I first noticed
the presence of the species in this habitat in the summer of 1939.
A single plant of Euphorbia Esula L. grew for a few years by the roadside
in Roding Lane, Buckhurst Hill (near the River Roding). In April, 1912, a
stem of this particular plant, with leaves and flowers, was added to the
Herbarium of the British Museum (Natural History) at South Kensington,
but a few years later the whole plant was destroyed in the course of some
road repair work.