NOTICES OF CHIEF ESSEX BIRD COLLECTIONS. 37
are but few specimens in it that can with certainty be set down as
having been obtained in Essex. It was very fully described by Dr.
Bree in the Field in 1867. Further information may be found
under the notice of Hoy (p. 23).
The King Collection, though not now preserved within the
county, is of local interest, having been collected round Sudbury by
the late Mr. W. D. King, under the foregoing notice of whom (p. 23}
further information about it will be found. It is now the property of
his nephew, Mr. John Grubb, of Birmingham.
The Saffron Walden Museum Collection, which is by far
the finest in the county, so far as number of specimens goes, is in an
admirable state of preservation and in good hands. It has been
systematically overhauled and re-arranged within the last few years,
and a considerable number of specimens, purchased at the sale of the
late Mr. Henry Stevenson, of Norwich, were added to it in 1888.
The collection dates from the year 1832, when the museum was
founded. Among those who laboured most strenuously to get
together this fine series of British birds were Messrs. Joseph Clarke,
Jabez Gibson, Stephen Salmon, and Henry Doubleday. The first-
named especially contributed many specimens, which were chiefly
shot in Norfolk. At the present time the collection of British birds alone
comprises some noo specimens representing about 310 species
(almost all of which are stuffed), of which perhaps one-quarter were
obtained within the county, though there are few strikingly rare
specimens from Essex. The birds are not separately cased, but are
admirably displayed in wall-cases ranged around, or upright cases
extending across, the great hall. As regards the museum in which
this magnificent collection is preserved together with many other
valuable collections, it is certainly not too much to say that it is un-
questionably in all respects the best and most complete which any
town of equal size in the United Kingdom can boast. It was opened
on May 12th, 1835. The abridged Catalogue, published in 1845,
contains the names of 305 British and 231 foreign birds, as being con-
tained in the Museum and most worthy of attention. This Catalogue,
which is illustrated, is exceedingly well printed, and is admirably got
up for the period when it appeared—indeed, it is said to have
been the best of its kind in existence at that day.*
* It may be interesting to mention that the fine specimen of the African Elephant now in
the Museum was the first ever brought to this country. It was stuffed and mounted by Mr,
Joseph Clarke, who has often told me how he " built " it, as he expressed it. He and his assist-
ants worked two whole days and a night continuously upon it, constantly pouring cans of
water over it to prevent the skin from becoming hard before it was properly stretched over its