122 THE BIRDS OF ESSEX.
and looking up he beheld an incredible number of small birds flying abreast, in
a line, as far as the eye could distinguish them and three or four yards deep.
Their direction was towards the south-east, the wind favouring them : their
height only a few yards from the ground. The flock was supposed to consist
principally of Chaffinches, Linnets, Twites and Bramblings. None of the two
latter species were seen in the neighbourhood after that time, and there is on
these shores in the winter season an immense quantity of Linnets—more than
can be bred in the neighbourhood."
Round Harwich, it is " very common in winter " (Kerry). Mr. Smee says (34.
2605) that, although in " some winters they rise from the saltings in tens of
thousands," they were "scarce" in the winter of 1870-71. Edward Doubleday
includes it (15) in his list of birds which have occurred in the vicinity of
Epping, and English calls it (43. i. 24) an " occasional visitor," while King
says (20) that it "frequently appears in small flocks in the winter" in the
neighbourhood of Sudbury, but it is not frequent in the inland parts of the
county, though Mr. Travis has two alive, caught close to the town, in Oct., 1888.
At Danbury, Mr. Smoothy says it is common in the winter, and is taken by
bird-catchers with Linnets.
Bullfinch : Pyrrhula europaea.
A fairly-common resident throughout the county, though most
often seen during winter, when it is often very destructive to the buds
of fruit-trees. I
believe it has be-
come commoner
of late years.
Mr. Clarke des-
cribes it (24) as
"very common"
round Saffron Wal-
den. He mentions
" a very singular
one—half one, and
half the other, sex."
It is " frequent " in
and around Epping
Forest (Buxton—47.
88). King speaks
of it (20) as " com-
mon " at Sudbury,
and Mr. Grubb says
(39) that to his
garden there it " comes in numbers in early spring, to the destruction of the goose-
berry buds." At Harwich, it is very common, and breeds (Kerry). Mr. J. H.
Hills of Feering has a pure white specimen shot by himself at Little Tey in
October, 1874. Mr. Alfred Fitch of Sible Hedingham has a male stuffed which
became quite black in confinement through being fed on hemp seed. Many simi-
lar cases have been reported.
Crossbill: Loxia curvirostra.
An irregular and uncertain visitor, chiefly between midsummer