136
THE BIRDS OF ESSEX.
being frozen to the branches on which they had perched for the night in Sheep-
cote's Wood, Great Waltham. A writer on the " Superstitions of Essex," in 1839
(19. 86), says,
"In Essex the issue of a journey is often unravelled to the traveller by the
number of Crows which cross his path, as the following couplet showeth, and which
we well recollect our good old nurse took especial care to teach us as an indispen-
sable part of education :—
" One Crow, bad luck ; two Crows, speed ;
Three Crows, good luck ; four, good luck indeed."
Another form is,
One's unlucky, Four is wealth,
Two's lucky, Five is sickness,
Three is health, And six is death.
On the morning of Christmas Day, 1876, several pairs were observed build-
ing in a Rookery at Ilford, and on the 23rd of January following I observed
them building in the trees forming the avenue in front of Torrell's Hall, Willing-
ale. In 1881, several pairs began to build a little before Christmas time in a
Rookery at Saffron Walden, and a week later (Jan. 2) I saw others similarly
engaged at another Rookery adjoining.
In February, 1881, Mr. Travis received a young bird with the mandibles con-
siderably twisted and crossed at the tips.
A " very curiously marked specimen of the Rook, beautifully mottled," was
shot at Mark's Hall, in December, 1838 (19. 90). This bird was doubtless simi-
lar to the variety figured by Hancock. Mr. Chas. E. Smith, writing at Cogges-
hall in 1858, says (31. 53), "Two of these birds, of a uniform drab-colour, have
been shot in the neighbouring Rookeries and preserved by a bird-stuffer of this
town." I have the skin of a cream-coloured specimen with pink eyes hatched
here in the spring of 1880. Mr. Hope has a white specimen shot at Nelmes,
Hornchurch, in June, 1888. A " dun-coloured" specimen was shot at East Til-
bury, on May 15th, 1884 (29. May 24). Mr. A. C. Stephenson records that a
cream-coloured specimen was shot at Chigwell on May 12th, 1872 (29. May 18).
Raven : Corvus corax.
Still a resident in Essex, though a very rare one—indeed, it is
probable, if not certain, that ours is the only county in the east,
south-east, or midland counties of England in which the Raven still
breeds regularly. It is much to be feared, however, that unless the
few pairs still nesting with us receive in the future more consideration
than that they have had during the last few years they will soon cease
to remain with us. The Raven was once a common bird, breeding
frequently in Essex, and there are still many trees known as " Raven
Trees," from the fact of their having once been regularly occupied by
a pair of birds for many years ; but it is now almost extinct, though
I saw and heard one at Great Warley on Feb. 12th, 1880. The species
lingered on the coast some time after becoming rare inland. It is most
earnestly to be hoped that naturalists, collectors and others will ab-
stain from molesting our few remaining Essex Ravens. The fact of