170
THE BIRDS OF ESSEX.
The gardener, on seeing this bird, remarked, ' What fierce things they are when
they have got nests. I was along with a boy once who got up to one, and the
old one picked a hole smack through his hat, and scratched his hand properly
before he could make her go off the nest. There used to be a good many of
them about here once, but there are not many of them now.' This last remark
is perfectly correct."
In the Epping district, notwithstanding the extent of the Forest, they had,.
" thanks to the gamekeepers," become extinct as long ago as 1835, according to
Edward Doubleday (15). King, in 1838, says (20) :
" About ten years ago, whilst walking across Friar's Meadow [Sudbury], a
gentleman pointed out to me one of these birds, wheeling in the air at a consider-
able height above us. Its forked tail at once distinguishes it from every other
British Hawk. It has become scarce in this district."
Canon Babington (46. 32) speaks of one "mentioned to Mr. Hills as having
been lately (1880) seen flying over Sudbury," and adds that "two specimens in
the Hoy Collection are considered [by Mrs. Lescher] to be from the neighbour-
hood " of Stoke-by-Nayland. Dr. Laver informs me that in 1854 he approached
near to an unmistakable individual at Paglesham, but refrained from shooting
it, although he carried a gun, and had a good opportunity of doing so.
Mr. Edward Corder, of Writtle, says he can remember their breeding in the High-
Woods. Mr. Hy. Stephenson, head-keeper at Birch, tells me that he has heard of
a " Crotch-tailed Puttock's " nest which was built in Stroodland Grove, Mersea,
about the year 1845. In 1881, Mr. Travis showed me a fine old male said to
have been shot at Sampford, about 1872, " in the middle of summer." The Rev.
J. C. Atkinson writes me : " As to the Kite, all I know was that some of my
school-fellows knew of a nest not far from Kelvedon." This must have been
about sixty years ago.
Honey Buzzard : Pernis apivorus.
Formerly a not uncommon summer visitor, but now rare. It
still breeds occasionally in England ; but, so far as I have been able
to discover, there is no actual re-
cord of its having done so in
Essex, where, however, it still
now and then occurs as a pass-
ing migrant, usually in the au-
tumn, though very rarely in the
spring. In September, 1881,
several occurred in Essex, and in
other parts of the country.
Mr. J. D. Hoy records (12. v. 280)
that a male was shot on October 12th,.
1831, in Tendring Hall Park, which
is in Suffolk, just beyond the Essex
boundary. It was very fat, and had
remains of wasps and beetles in its crop
and stomach. Mr, Clarke notes (24)
that a very handsome bird was shot in
1837 by Harrington, the keeper at Debden Hall, and was lately in the posses-