6
THE BIRDS OF ESSEX.
This work has been partially done by the British Association
Migration Committee. Our principal lights are the following :—
Cork, L.V., 5 miles off mouth of Harwich River.
Landguard Point, L.H., entrance to Harwich River.
Galloper, L. V., 40 miles S.E. of Orfordness ; 2 white, horizontal, fixed.
Kentish Knock, L. V., 33 miles N.E. North Foreland ; white, revolving each minute.
Swim Middle, L. V., off Thames ; white, revolving every minute.
Tongue, L. V., off Thames ; 2 lights, fixed ; higher white, lower red.
Nore, L. V., entrance to Thames ; white, revolving 30 seconds.
(d.) Number of Species met with in Essex.
Although it is certain that further observation will bring to light
other Essex birds, not recorded in the following pages, it will be
found that the list contains no less than 272 species, a number which
has, I believe, been exceeded in very few other counties, namely,
in Norfolk, Yorkshire, Suffolk, and perhaps one or two others. It
would have been easy to increase this total by the addition of at least
a score of other species, which have been admitted by some writers,
such as the Purple Martin, Great Black Woodpecker, Black Swan,
Canada Goose, Virginian Colin and Spotted Sandpiper (which have
no claim whatever to a place on the British list), the Great Reed
Warbler, Marsh Warbler, Red Grouse, Macqueen's Bustard, Rock
Dove and American Wigeon (which have been recorded in Essex,
either under doubtful circumstances or on insufficient evidence), the
Black-bellied Dipper, Parrot Crossbill, and Intermediate Ringed
Dotterel (which I regard as sub-species or geographical races merely).
All these, however, I have unhesitatingly rejected.
(c.) British Species first met with in Essex.
The following British Birds, five in number, are notable as having
first been met with in Essex :—
Alpine Accentor Adriatic Gull
Blue-headed Wagtail Scopoli's Sooty Tern.
Pheasant
(f.) Nomenclature.
The system of nomenclature and classification I have adopted
is that employed in the " Ibis " List of British Birds, compiled by
a Committee of the British Ornithologists' Union, and published in
1883. This list should, in my opinion, be now regarded as the
standard and only duly authorised one; for, although not altogether
free from objectionable points, it is the joint work of several of our
best working ornithologists, by whom it was most carefully and
deliberately compiled, and it has been officially adopted by the