142
THE BIRDS OF ESSEX.
just as plentiful in spring time. They resort very much to the saltings, * * *
roosting there at nights. They may also constantly be seen at some distance
from the shore, picking up sandworms on the fore-shore after the tide has left it.
I have never seen A. auda arvensis resort so much to the sea-coast as it does here.'>
On May 13th, 1881, I witnessed a very extraordinary occurrence near Saffron
Walden. I was walking with a friend across a ploughed field when a Sky Lark
suddenly flew up from beneath his feet. Looking down, we saw its nest contain-
ing young. On the edge of the nest lay the feathers of the bird's tail, upon
which my friend had unconsciously trodden, and she, springing up, had left them
behind. I have them yet. Mr. Sackett writes that round Orsett "great num-
bers were drowned by the extensive flood on August 2nd, 1888. When shooting on
the 4th of that month, he noticed many floating on the submerged marshes." The
Rev. M. C. H. Bird informs me that, on April 24th, 1882, he found three abnor-
mal white eggs in a nest on Canvey Island.
About the middle of January, 1881, a cream-coloured variety was shot
close to Saffron Walden, and in the Museum is a specimen in unusually light
plumage shot there and presented many years since by Mr. G. Bullock. Mr.
Hastings Warren, of Little Dunmow, informs me that, for several years in suc-
cession, he observed a remarkably light-coloured specimen in the fields round his
house. " W. H. P." records a white specimen, all except a few pied feathers on
the top of the head and the wings, shot by him at Chesterford Park on Sept.
1st, 1870 (29. Sept. 10).
Wood Lark : Alauda arborea.
Formerly a rare and local resident in the Epping Forest and Saf-
fron Walden districts, but it seems of late years to have, for some
unknown reason,
disappeared from
those localities,
and I have not
heard of the oc-
currence of more
than a single speci-
men in the county
for years.
Henry Doubleday
writes (10) in 1832 :
" The Wood Lark
seems to have become
very rare. I never
saw it alive wild, and
never could procure
a specimen." However, in June, 1839, he wrote (10), "The Wood Lark is
rapidly increasing. They sing most delightfully of an evening." In March,
1840, he says (10), "We have a number of Wood Larks about this spring, but I
fear the London bird-catchers will thin them." Again, a month later, he wrote
" We have a great many Wood Larks." Its name occurs without comment in
Edward Doubleday's list of Epping birds (15), and in 1880 English included it as