200
THE BIRDS OF ESSEX.
Sudbury (King). The Rev. M. C. H. Bird informs me of a pair seen on Canvey
Island on Jan. 20th and 25th, 1881 ; another on Jan. 21st, 1882 ; another pair on
April 18th and 23rd, 1885 ; and also of two pairs seen on March 9th and again
on April 9th, 1882, all on Canvey Island, where, he adds, he still knows of their
breeding.* He says (40. xi. 195) it is known as " Bargoose " on the Essex coast.
He never heard the term Bargander applied to the male. " It appears to be a
lat; breeder. One, killed off Canvey Island a few years ago on May 9th, had no
down off the breast, although the feathers there were dirty, as if she had been
burrowing, and the most fully developed egg in the ovary was not so large as a
pea."
As regards its breeding in the county, Mr. Fitch writes (41. i. 196) : " A nest
of this handsome duck was found on Osey Island this year [1887] in a rabbit hole
on the cliffs. The old bird was caught, but again liberated, and the seven eggs
taken by Jordan and put under a hen. These all hatched in three days time."
One young one was speedily killed, but the rest were kept alive by Mr. E. EI.
Bentall. Mr. Fitch also knew of a nest on the Crouch at Fambridge in
1889. The Rev. J. C. Atkinson writes me that he knew of its breeding
at West Mersea some sixty years ago. He adds : " One of my friends, the son of
the then Rector of East Mersea and Curate of West, got a ' clutch ' of eggs out
of one of the sand-hills, near where he and I used to bathe, and hatched them
at East Mersea Rectory, I forget whether under a hen or a duck." Dr. Laver
describes it as " common on the coast, where it still breeds in some spots." Mr.
Hope who has specimens shot at Harwich in December, 1867, says it "still breeds
on the coast in rabbit holes." On June 12th, 1888, Mr. Fitch and myself were
informed by the keepers of the Old Hall Marshes, Tollesbury, that a pair were
then breeding near at hand, but we did not actually see them. Mr. Benton says
(35. 198) : " The Bargoose occasionally rears its young in haulm-walls, &c," on
the coast.
Ruddy Sheldrake : Tadorna casarca.
Of this rare visitant to the British Isles, I have only a single
record in Essex, and that a rather unsatisfactory one, inasmuch as
the whereabouts of the specimen said to have been obtained is not
now known.
Mr. Hope writes me :—
" I quite remember the fact of a Ruddy Sheldrake being shot in the Black-
water one time when I was fowling with Col. Russell on the Main ; and I remem-
ber at the time hearing who shot it, and how he only got a trifle for it, and how
the next man sold it for a large sum ; but I never saw it, and cannot remember
the exact date."
Wigeon : Mareca penelope.
A very common winter visitor to the coast and sometimes killed
inland. It used to be taken in the Decoys in prodigious numbers, as
already mentioned (p. 70). It seldom arrives before the end of Sep-
tember. Any seen earlier have probably been bred in Britain, as a
few undoubtedly breed in Scotland and Ireland, but it has never yet
been known to do so in England.
* On the latest Ordnance maps, a sand-bank at the east end of Canvey Island is still marked as
the " Bargander Sands."