76
THE BIRDS OF ESSEX.
" Last week several Ring Ouzels were seen here, and one or two killed, but
I was not able to get one myself. My brother Edward saw a pair on a warren
about four miles from us, about a week since. I went to look after them by
daylight next morning, hoping to be able to shoot them, but I could not find
them."
A few days later he notes killing " a remarkably fine female, at some gravel-
pits in the forest, about a mile off " (23. 13). One also frequented Doubleday's
garden, at Epping, during the first week of Nov. 1871 (34. 2942). At Epping,
Edward Doubleday wrote in 1835 (15), that they were "seen only at the time of
their equatorial and polar migrations." "One was seen in the spring of 1884
by the River Roding " (Buxton—47. 85). There is in the Saffron Walden
Museum a young bird shot at Littlebury on April 27th, 1836. Mr. Clarke (24)
mentions two others shot at Audley End, on Aug. 10th, 1836 and April 28th,
1839, respectively. He adds the remark, " One, sometimes two, taken most
seasons." Round Harwich it is " occasionally seen during the spring and autumn
migrations." Two were seen (40. v. 26) on Oct. 10, 1880 (Kerry). Four were
shot by Mr. Catchpool, of Feering Bury, in 1857 (C. E. Smith—31. 53). One
was seen by a keeper close to this house about the middle of April, 1877. Mr.
Hope says it is not uncommon, during migration, at Marshall's Park, Romford.
Mr. Lister (40. 442) saw a fine male in a garden near Wanstead Park, on Sept.
5th, 1877, and another cock about ten years previously at West Ham.
One was seen at Hylands, Widford, on April 14th, 1878. In 1883, Mr. Stacey, of
Dunmow, showed me one shot shortly before near Stanstead. Mr. Parsons (35)
records one shot near Southchurch in 1850, and in his collection are specimens
from near Shoebury. Mr. Joseph Clarke tells me that a female, weighing 41/4 oz.,
with a bare breast, was shot at the Roos, in Oct. 1878.
The only reliable record of its having bred in the county is the following,
though Yarrell says (14. i. 207) that " from the circumstance of a specimen
having been shot early in the month of August, 1836, near Saffron Walden
[see above] it was conjectured the bird had been bred in that neighbour-
hood " :—Mr. C. E. Bishop, of Wickham, found a nest with four eggs, built
almost upon the ground, about a foot from the edge of a ditch, and a few yards
from the edge of the Blackwater, in that parish, on May 10th, 1879. The hen
only was seen, and she was sitting (40. iii. 267).
Wheatear : Saxicola oenanthe.
Best known in Essex as a passing migrant in spring and autumn
(especially the former), though
it breeds commonly along our
sea-coast at Maldon, Burn-
ham, Brightlingsea, Walton,
Shoebury and elsewhere.
I have never known it breed
in the inland parts of the
county, except occasionally
near Saffron Walden, where
the hilly and chalky country
is exactly suited to its habits.
It often arrives early in March,