INTRODUCTION.
5
supports a considerable flora of saline-loving plants; but the " salt-
ings " are everywhere intersected by innumerable dykes or ditches,
which are filled by every tide, and which slowly empty again as the
tide falls, leaving a wide expanse of soft mud. Our Essex marshes
and saltings are chiefly found around the mouths and estuaries of
our larger rivers. They are most extensive at the mouths of the
Crouch, Blackwater and Colne. Here, during August and Sep-
tember, and again in May, when the thousands of wading birds
which breed further to the north are on migration, the marshes, saltings
and the extensive mud-flats outside them, literally swarm with many
different species, as the receding tide leaves uncovered their favourite
feeding-grounds. Here also many rare waders have from time to
time been met with.
(5.) The Open Sea round our coast can perhaps not strictly be
claimed as part of Essex, but to all intents and purposes it is so.
During the summer-time, our seas are singularly devoid of bird-life,
inasmuch as we have none of those rocky and precipitous eminences
which form the breeding-places of those birds which chiefly frequent
the open sea, such as gulls, guillemots, razorbills, cormorants,
gannets, &c.; but, from autumn to early spring, these birds are
usually to be found in greater or less numbers, while ducks, wild
geese, and sometimes wild swans, often appear in great numbers,
especially during severe weather.
(b.) Previous Essex Bird-Lists.
The number of local lists of birds relating to Essex which have
already appeared is remarkably small, considering the large number
of notes and scattered observations which may be met with in general
works on Natural History. Those which deserve special mention are
Edward Doubleday's List of Epping Birds (15), W. D. King's List
of Sudbury Birds (20), and Mr. George Day's articles on The Birds
of Essex (41). Almost all other items of information that have been
published are more of the nature of " notes " than systematic lists.
(r.) Light-houses and Light Vessels.
A large amount of work still remains to be done in recording
the movements of the birds appearing at the various light-ships
and lighthouses along our coast. From the position occupied by
our coast-line, right in the main stream of migration, very valuable
results might be expected from a systematic record of occurrences.