222 THE BIRDS OF ESSEX.
season, and as many as sixty couples have been killed in the course of a few days'
shooting on one manor in that county." Edward Doubleday says (15) it has oc-
curred at Epping. King, in 1838, says (20) it was then " not uncommon "around
Sudbury. Mr. Clarke says (24) of Saffron Walden, that it " breeds here occasion-
ally." One, he adds, was killed at Wenden in November, 1848. Mr. C. E. Smith
records (31. 53) " two shot in the autumn of 1857 " near Coggeshall. In 1867 a
nest with eleven eggs was taken in a clover-field about five miles from Ingatestone,
and in the previous year another nest was found on Sir Charles Smith's estate,
near Romford (Jesse—34. 915). Round Orsett, in 1885, Mr. Sackett says it was
"not uncommon," one nest containing eleven eggs being found at Heath Place
Farm and two at Mucking. Mr. Hope, who has seen specimens shot within three
miles of Harwich, says: " They appear about the first week in September, and are
all gone a fortnight later." A correspondent of the Field (29. Aug. 4, 1860),
who has "met with large bevies in Rochford Hundred, near the Crouch River,"
expresses the opinion that the chance of killing them is lost by shooting being
deferred till Sept. 1st. It is found occasionally in both the Colchester and Pagles-
ham districts (Laver). Mr. A. Marriage has one shot at Little Baddow. In
September, 1880, English preserved one shot at North Weald—the first Essex
example he had ever met with (44. i. xlv.). In May, 1880, several were seen near
Chrishall, where they had probably bred. The Rev. M. C. H. Bird informs me of
one shot on Canvey Island, Sept. 13th, 1881.
[Virginian Colin: Ortyx virginianus.
This is an introduction from America, which has never been able to
establish itself. It has been found in Essex. Dr. Bree records one
met with near Birch about June 5th, 1878 (29. June 22)].
[Red Grouse : Lagopus scoticus.
It is impossible to regard this as an Essex bird, though an individual
in a perfectly wild state has been killed in the county. It was shot by
Mr. Thomas Aldham, of Ulting Hall, in one of his fields on that farm,
whilst partridge-shooting in or about the month of September, two or
three years ago. No similar bird was observed at the time. The
specimen was stuffed in Maldon, where Mr. Fitch and others saw
it in the flesh. It is still in Mr. Aldham's possession at Ulting, where I
have seen it, and believe it to be a female. It is less surprising to
meet with a Grouse at Ulting than in any other part of the county, for
within two miles as the crow flies, are the extensive commons of
Danbury and Little Baddow, where there is a greater expanse of heather
than can be found elsewhere in Essex. The most likely supposition is
that the bird had strayed from Sandringham, where fourteen brace were
turned out in 1878, of which enough remained in 1881 to propagate three
broods ; or it may have come from one or other of the places in Suffolk
where attempts were made to introduce it about twenty years ago
(46. 107)].