NOTES
155
away in lumps revealing the glossy black summer coat beneath.
As in growth, shedding of this winter coat appears to commence
from over the withers.
Acknowledgments
The care and preservation of the Epping Forest deer is vested
in the Conservators of Epping Forest, and we wish to express our
considerable thanks to them and the Forest Superintendent, Mr.
A. Qvist, for the assistance he has given in recovering and supply-
ing this material. We would also like to express our thanks to a
number of colleagues and friends who have variously helped in the
collection and examination of this material, in the examination of
comparative material in collections under their care, or have com-
mented on the present paper. These are: Mr. Kenneth Marshall,
Miss Margaret Smith (Mrs. D. May), Miss J. P. Coy (Mrs. C. E.
Owen), Mr. A. Storey, Mr. White (P.D.S.A.), Dr. G. Corbet, Pro-
fessor R. Harrison, and Mrs. R. Chaplin.
References
Buxton, E. N. (1884). Epping Forest. London.
Harting, J. E. (1887). The deer of Epping Forest. Essex Nat., 1.
Whitehead, G. K. (1964). The Deer of Great Britain and Ireland. London.
Notes
NOTES ON BIRDS IN OR NEAR AN ILFORD SUBURBAN
GARDEN: WINTER AND EARLY SPRING 1963
The following notes on unusual bird visitors to a suburban garden
during the extremely cold winter of 1962-3 seem typical of many obser-
vations made at this period. (A very full account of the effects of this
hard winter on birds in Essex has been published in The Essex Bird
Report 1963: 61-69. Editor.).
Jan. 6th. A Green Woodpecker spent an hour on three hawthorn trees,
trying to find insects.
Jan. 12th & 13th. Two Meadow Pipits feeding with Starlings and Black-
birds.
Jan. 19th & 20th. Two Skylarks and several Fieldfares.
Jan. 26th & 27th. Fieldfares and Redwings feeding.
Feb. 2nd & 3rd. Redwings still visiting the garden. They were still in
the area until 12th February, feeding on crab apples from the
ornamental trees in the roads.
Feb. 12th. A Song Thrush sang for quite a long spell in the early evening.
Feb. 23rd. Redwing seen again.
Mar. 1st. Saw 3 Kestrels above the grounds of Wanstead Hospital.
Mar. 10th. First heard Blackbirds singing. They seemed slow in singing
this year, but not in nesting.
May 11th. First broods of blackbirds fully fledged.