Journal of Proceedings.
v
Scaup Duck is a winter visitor to this country and rather a late one,
seldom making its appearance until the end of October or beginning of
November. In the estuaries and along the flat shores it is met with
plentifully, often in very large flocks ; but it rarely betakes itself to
inland fresh-water. Its food consists of mollusca, small fish, aquatic
insects, and marine plants, which it obtains by diving.
Mr. W. Crouch exhibited a specimen of the Shoveller (Anas clypeata,
Linn.) shot by Mr. Llewellyn Hatton, on the 27th October, 1881, at the
River Boding, near St. Swithin's Farm, Barking Side. Mr. Hatton stated
that he had never seen one there before during forty years of shooting.
About the date mentioned there was a week or so of intensely bitter
weather, and the bird had doubtless come with the wild ducks (then in
abundance) for feeding, or had been driven inland by stress of weather.
Mr. Crouch thought that the Shoveller was almost unknown in this part
of Essex, but it was occasionally met with as a spring and autumn
migrant in the eastern portions of the county and in Suffolk, probably
coming from Belgium. In Norfolk it sometimes remained to breed.
Mr. Charles B. Sworder exhibited some pieces of pottery and bones
found by Mr. J. Brown during operations for the draining of land belong-
ing to the Sutton Estate of the Charter House, at Little Hallingbury,
Essex. The ground in which they were found was stiff clay, overlaid with a
flinty soil, but where the pottery and bones were found it was dark, and
in places there was a considerable quantity of charcoal with stones showing
the effects of fire. At some little distance there was blue clay, from which
Mr. Sworder thought the vessels might have been made. "They vary in
make, some being globular, others the shape of a flower-pot, and from
3 to 18 inches in diameter. Some about l-8th inch, others nearly 1 inch
thick, all with rims varying in design; some with marks made in turning,
others with a rough design upon them ; the material also varies con-
siderably, and a few bear traces of colouring, black, red and blue. They
were found at depths varying from 18 to 30 inches from the surface, and
the dark soil is in bands from 2 to 15 feet wide, the ditches intersecting
them."
Remarks upon the specimens were made by Mr. Robarts, Rev. W.
Linton Wilson, and Mr. Sworder, and, at the suggestion of the President,
Mr. Sworder left the pottery in the Secretary's hands for examination by
some competent authority.
The Secretary called attention to an old encampment called "Wallbury,"
situated about a mile from the field in which Mr. Sworder's specimens
were found, as being likely to prove of interest to the Club. Mr. Archer
Houblon, the owner of the land on which it is situated, had replied to
inquiries as follows :—"The Camp at Wallbury is an undoubted one, but
whether it was held by Britons against Romans, or by Romans against
Britons, I can give you no information ; I have always been desirous of
obtaining some. The situation is very interesting, and the form of the
work is very perfect, denoting that the camp was constructed with great