220 THE BIRDS OF ESSEX.
at Saffron Walden in 1831-32-34-35, and mentions a nest containing thirteen eggs
built in 1848 on an oat-stack, sixteen feet from the ground. From these records
one may infer that the bird was then uncommon round Walden. Both Mr. Fitch
and myself have known several other instances of this bird nesting on the tops of
straw-stacks. About the middle of June, 1882, I put a bird—I believe of this
species—out of the crown of a large old pollard oak, standing in a hedgerow near
here. I could not find any nest (40. vii. 80). On June 23rd, 1877, I found a nest
in a lucerne field at Lindsell Hall, near Dunmow, containing eight eggs, all pure
white except for a few reddish spots and specks on one of them. Mr. J. H. Hills,
of Feering, has a specimen shot by himself, at Pattiswick, on Jan. 30, 1877,
which is said to have weighed twenty-five ounces. Round Orsett, Mr. Sackett
says it is as common as the English species. He adds that he has been informed
(but does not personally know it to be true) that in 1877 this species interbred
with the common species, on the East Tilbury Marshes. Mr. Stacey, of Dunmow,
has a couple shot near there, which also appear to have been crossed with the
Common Partridge, as traces of the markings of that bird may be seen upon the
feathers of their backs. I shot a similar young bird at Broomfield, in September,
1889. Other instances of these two species interbreeding are not unknown (27;
iii. 114). The Hon. C. H. Strutt records (29. Sept. 21), the appearance near Witham
in September, 1878, of a covey of nine, all of which were melanistic varieties ex-
cept one. Dr. Bree records two pied specimens, shot at Alresford by Mr. Haw-
kins (29. Dec. s, 1863).
Partridge: Perdix cinerea.
An abundant resident, especially where well protected. It does
not appear, in Essex, to have in any way diminished since the intro-
duction of the Red-legged Partridge, as is often supposed.
Daniel says (6. App, 397) " In 1808, at Mark's Hall in Essex, Payne the game-
keeper noticed a brace of Partridges, whose nest had been destroyed, taking to a
nest of Pheasants' eggs that the hen bird had been killed from by some accident,
and hatching and bring up ten young ones " (37. iii. 109). Both Yarrell (14. ii.
334), and Colonel Hawker, in his Instructions to Young Sportsmen (1825 ed., p. 215),
allude to this nest Daniel also (6. ii. 400) mentions a nest containing six-
teen eggs, found in 1788 on the top of an oak pollard at Lion Hall Farm, Essex,
belonging to Colonel Hawker. The bars of a stile crossing a public foot-path
were fastened to the tree and many persons passed the spot, but the eggs were
safely hatched and the young reached the ground by "scrambling down the short
and rough boughs which grew out all around from the trunk of the tree." It is
recorded (29. Oct. 15) that on Oct. 7th, 1887, a covey of nine started from West
Tilbury to fly across the Thames—at this point a mile or a mile-and-a-quarter
wide—and the whole of them fell into the water and were picked up by watermen.
The following extraordinary circumstance is recorded in the Essex County Chronicle
for June 3rd, 1887 :—
" On Thursday, as two boys were engaged in mowing the lawn at the Grange
[Little Dunmow], a brace of Partridges suddenly started up. One bird flew
directly into the face of one of the boys, striking him with such force as to draw
blood and giving him a black eye, the bird itself falling dead at his feet.
The Rev. C. G. Green says {Collections and Recollections of Nat. Hist. and
Sport, p. 211) :
" For a family shot, I never heard of anything to come up to one that was made
by an old clergyman many years ago in the parish [Wimbish] in which stands
Mr. Gayton's house, Tiptofts. * * * He was such a very bad shot that he hardly