32 THE BIRDS OF ESSEX.
the Court of Quarter Sessions. The House-Sparrows found in him a persevering
and relentless foe, his argument being that the Martins and Swallows about our
village and homesteads were being rapidly exterminated by this dominant and
ubiquitous species. He boasted that at Stubbers he had, by killing off the
Sparrows, increased the number of Martins' nests from two to nigh one hundred
and fifty [44. iii. xx.]. * * * He was a frequent contributor to the Natural History
and public journals on this question, and was one of the writers, in conjunction
with Mr. Gurney and Dr. Elliott Coues, of a volume on the Sparrow-question,
which appeared in 1886. He constantly advocated the claims of his feathered
friends for outdoor-assistance in hard winters, and in his garden could be seen con-
trivances in aid of tiny housekeepings, and nets full of scraps of fat and biscuit*,
&c > temptingly displayed and fitting for the season or the whims and fancies of
his little pensioners. The place was indeed a veritable paradise for all that dwell
in nests or have the ' gift of song.'
" Col. Russell was one of the keenest sportsmen of his time, and few faces
were better known, or will be more missed, in the Blackwater estuary and
on the ' Main.' It is now forty-five years since he first came regularly to
the river, punting and wild-fowling, and it is stated that from that time
to the present he only lost one season, when in America. His first yacht was the
'Greyhound' (sixteen tons), built for him at Heybridge Basin, which he sailed
for fifteen years. Next came the ' Sheldrake ' (twenty tons), built at Harvey's,
at Wivenhoe, which he used for thirty-two years (he had this and the ' Greyhound '
together for about two 3'ears). Next the ' Champion ' (twenty-eight tons) built
at Mr. J.Howard's, Maldon, launched in September, 1886, without a name, but
speedily christened by the Maldon Hythe duck-hunters, the ' Black Goose,' and
the name still survives. She is a first-class boat, and Col. Russell took great in-
terest in her while building, superintending much of the work himself. The year
previous (1885) he had built at Mr. Howard's yard a light punt, he and his
skipper working at it themselves during the whole summer, nothing to be touched
except when he was present. He was equally careful with his lifeboat built in
1884. Both boats were designed by himself, and were very successful; the punt
is an especially interesting craft. The Colonel was always much interested in ship-
building, and was constantly inventing varnishes, and glues, and other appliances
for his favourite work. So skilful and much at home was he in the yard, that
strangers have taken him for one of the regular workmen.
" He was a remarkably good shot at wild-fowl, having one of the biggest guns
used in the district, and was known to the Maldon gunners as a most fair-dealing
shooter ; however small the gun or bad the chance of one shooting with him, the
' kill' was always equally divided by the Colonel, always to his own disadvantage.
He was most patient and persevering in his pursuit of the Black Goose, and as
Gabriel Clark (who was with him all the forty-five years, and who still lives at Mal-
don) tells, it was wonderful how many hours he would wait and work for them, and
whenever he did get near the birds it was ' all up ' with them : their doom was
certain. His knowledge of the Blackwater Estuary and the Main outside was far
and allowedly superior to that of any of the natives, and he was an authority
to the Marsh-bailiffs and oyster dredgermen on many points of river lore.
Col. Russell's health failed in the beginning of 1887. In February,
he went for a trip on his yacht to Holland, but the change did not
benefit him. When he returned early in March he was seriously ill,