82
THE BIRDS OF ESSEX.
The Robin and the Redbreast,
The Martin and the Swallow,
If ye touch one of their eggs,
Bad luck will surely follow."
Nightingale : Danlias luscinia.
A common summer visitor, especially abundant, I think, in the
Epping Forest and Saffron
Walden districts. It is ge-
nerally first heard about
April 15th, though in 1878,
it is said (but almost cer-
tainly erroneously) to have
been heard at Bridge Hall,
Stisted, on February 10th
(Chelmsford Chron., Feb.
15). In 1879, Mr. Har-
wood heard it at West
Bergholt on April 7 th, the
earliest date he had ever heard it (29. Apr. 12), while Dr. Bree
records one (34. 454) heard singing near Colchester as late as
August 9th, 1866. The males arrive several days before the females.
Mr. Grubb writes (39), " We have a nest almost every year in our garden
[at Sudbury], and generally see the young birds after they leave the nest. They
are foolishly tame, sometimes coming into the wash-house, and suffering them-
selves to be caught." Mr. Buxton says (47. 89) it is "well distributed over our
district. * * * In the spring of 1858, an old Leytonstone bird-catcher caught
thirty-four about the avenues."
Morant says (Hist. of Essex, i. p. 59) that Havering was
"an ancient retiring-place of some of our Saxon kings, particularly of that
simple saint, Edward the Confessor, who took great delight in it as being woody
and solitary, fit for his private devotions. The legend says it abounded with
warbling nightingales ; that they disturbed him at his prayers ; and he earnestly
desired of God their absence. Since which time, as the credulous neighbouring
swains believe, never nightingale was heard to sing in the park, but [as] many
without the pales as in other places."
Lesser Whitethroat: Sylvia curruca.
A fairly common summer visitor, arriving about the middle of
April and leaving again about the beginning of September. It is
most often seen at the time of the spring migration, but breeds with
us in fair numbers, though it is at all times less abundant than the
Common Whitethroat.
Hy. Doubleday, writing to Heysham in 1831, says (10) that at Epping it is
" equally common with the larger one, and much more destructive to fruit in
gardens. Its song is very different from any other bird's." W. D. King des-
cribes it (20) as common around Sudbury.