ASIONIDAE—OWLS.
157
Mr. Clarke's notes show that it used to be fairly common at Saffron Walden. He
notes " several in 1854 " (24). They are now not uncommon there in winter, one
or two reaching Mr. Travis annually. In the winter of 1880-81, from the end of
November to the beginning of March, they were very common, several sometimes
being sent to Mr. Travis in the course of a single day. Just after the tremendous
snow-storm of January 18th, a flock of twelve was seen at Littlebury and another
of seven at Rickling. In the following winter they were again unusually abundant
from November 1st onwards. On December 30th, 1881, I watched one for fully
ten minutes beating systematically over the magnificent lawn between Audley End
House and the River Cam. Twice while I watched it, it caught and ate some-
thing. At Orsett, a few are generally shot during the autumn (Sackett). Round
Harwich, according to Mr. Kerry, it is common during the autumn migration. It
was especially numerous there during the week ending Nov. 4th, 1876, when a
great many were shot (40. i. 52). Mr. Kerry adds : " Whilst shooting on the Bent-
lings near Walton-on-the-Naze, on Aug. 4th, 1884, I saw three of these birds
two of which were shot. No doubt they were bred there." It is difficult to avoid
the conclusion that they were really bred on the spot, as Mr. Kerry surmises,
especially as Mr. Kerry informs me that a pair undoubtedly bred there in 1889.
He writes :—
" They made their nest in the rough grass on an island, near Little Oakley,
and some of the young Owls were caught before they were able to fly. I saw an
old bird hawking over the bentlings in the sunshine on the afternoon of July
31st " (40. xiii. 453).
In 1884, one was observed at Languard Point as early as Aug. 20th (42).
Hollinshed, in his Chronicles (1587. vol. iii. p. 1315), says:—
" About Hallontide last past [1580], in the marishes of Danesey Hundred, in
a place called Southminster, in the Countie of Essex, a strange thing hapned :
there sodainlie appeared an infinite multitude of mice, which, overwhelming the
whole earth in the said marishes, did sheare and knaw the grasse by the rootes,
spoyling and tainting the same with their venimous teeth, in such sort that the
cattell which grazed thereon were smitten with a murreine, and died thereof ;
which vermine by policie of man could not be destroyed, till at the last it came to
passe that there flocked together all about the same marishes such a number of
Owles as all the shire was not able to yeeld : whereby the marsh-holders were
shortly deliuered from the vexation of the said mice."
Stow, in his Annales of England (1605. p. 1166), makes the same statement in
almost identical words. In his second edition (1615), he again repeats the story,
adding, "The like of this was also in Kent." Speed also mentions the circum-
stance. Joshua Childrey, too, in his Britania Baconica, or the Natural Rarities of
England, Scotland and Wales (r66o. p. 100), gives a similar account, adding " It is
reported that in 1648 there happened the like again in Essex." Elsewhere he in-
forms us that 1580 was " an extream dripping warm year, and a mild and moist
winter." Lilly, in his Merlinus Anglicus Junior, published about 1664, also alludes to
an invasion of mice at Southminster in 1660. Childrey's account of the occurrence
is often quoted, but curiously the earlier accounts seem to have been overlooked.
All the different accounts of the invasion above referred to are obviously copied
from Hollinshed, to whom credit should accordingly be given. It is clear, how-
ever, that the remarks by Fuller in his Worthies of England (1662. p. 348) are
quite original and are not copied from Hollinshed or any other chronicler. He
says:—
" I wish the sad casualties may never return which lately have happened in
this County [of Essex] : the one [in] 1581, in the Hundred of Dengy (Stow:
Chron. Anno Citat) ; the other [in] 1648, in the Hundred of Rochford and Ile of