INTRODUCTION.
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or to what a pitch of ornithological eminence the county might by
this time have been raised.
Essex has been favoured, too, in its great extent and in the
variety presented by its surface, which in different spots presents
several widely different kinds of country. It entirely lacks those
mountainous tracts, wide open moors, and rocky precipitous cliffs,
which afford some of the most interesting birds met with in many
other counties; but still, taken as a whole, Essex probably presents
as great a variety of surface as any other English county, except,
perhaps, Yorkshire. These varied districts next deserve a few words
of special mention. They may be roughly classed as :—
(1) The Chalky Uplands,
(2) The Lowlands,
(3) The Forests and Woodlands,
(4) The Marshes and Saltings,
(5) The Open Sea.
(1.) The Chalky Uplands. This, though a well-defined area,
with striking natural features, is of small extent, being confined to the
district around and to the N., N.W., and W. of Saffron Walden, in
the extreme north-western corner of the county, abutting upon
Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire, in which counties this kind of
country covers a considerable area. Around Heydon, the appearance
of the country a good deal resembles that of the South Downs,
though much less undulating, and nearly all enclosed and under
cultivation of some sort. Still, the boldly-undulating, well-rounded
hills, separated by more or less deep valleys, so characteristic of all
chalk-districts, are unmistakably there. Here, naturally, we meet
with birds of the open downs. The Stone Plover, which nests no-
where else in the county, breeds in some numbers, while the Dotterel
halts awhile, on its spring and autumn migrations. The hills, though
for the most part bare, are in places covered with woods, chiefly
plantations.
(2.) The Lowlands. This extensive region, though varying
a good deal in its chief characteristics and appearance in different
spots, may be said to form at least seven-tenths of the entire county.
It occupies the whole of the centre, extending almost unbroken
from the chalky uplands in the extreme north-west to the marshes
and saltings on the coast. Broadly speaking, it is a region of stiff
clay, mainly the London Clay, but overlaid by the Chalky Boulder
Clays in places, and the whole may be said to be (and to have been
B 2