240
THE BIRDS OF ESSEX.
Family SCOLOPACIDAE.
Avocet : Recurvirostra avocetta. Locally, " Crooked-bill."
Formerly a not uncommon summer visitor, but now only a rare
visitant to England. The only records of its appearance in Essex I
have been able to discover are the fol-
lowing :—
Dale, mentions it (2. 402) under the
name " Crooked-bill." He says it is met with
" in these eastern parts [about Harwich] fre-
quently. The first time I did see it, was on an
Island below Maldon, called Northey, anno
1700. In the summer time." At this time of
year, it must undoubtedly have been breeding,
as it used also to do in Sussex, Kent, Suffolk,
Norfolk, Lincolnshire, &c. On the north side
of the Island, as Mr. E. A. Fitch has informed
me, there is still a creek known, and marked on
some maps, as "Awl Creek," which name is with very little doubt a relic of the
time when the Avocet or ' Awl-bill" bred on its banks. Such survivals are very inter-
esting. Mr. Hope remarks that Avocets " often land in the winter time." He adds,
" One gunner on the Main shot eight at one shot. The late Col. Russell bought them
for £1." Several are still among the birds he left, while a fine adult from Essex,
now in the Norwich Museum, presented by Col. Russell, was, doubtless, one of
the same lot. Mr. Hope also informs me that, on Apr. nth, 1889. about 5 p.m.,
four were observed to fly in from the east of the Cork Sands. They flew about 120
yards high, and, curving round, took a northerly course up the Deben River.
Black-winged Stilt: Himantopus candidus.
A rare straggler to Britain, which is included in this list on very
slight, though I think sufficient, grounds.
Mr. Clarke notes (24) that one was seen about 1820 round the pond at his
residence, " The Roos," near Saffron Walden. He still remembers being hur-
riedly called by a man to see " a bird with legs a yard long," but was only in
time to see it fly away.
Red-necked Phalarope : Phalaropus hyperboreus.
A regular, though uncommon, passing migrant in spring and
autumn, when on its way to and from its breeding stations on the
islands in the extreme north of Scotland.
Mr. Bond met with one or two at Southend late in August, 1842 (23. 40).
An old male, in winter plumage, was taken on the lake in Debden Park on Oct.
15th, 1881, after a severe storm (44. ii. lxxx). Specimens were shot near Har-
wich in Aug. and Sept., 1876 (Kerry—40. i. 52). The late Mr. Bond's Collec-
tion contained a specimen, in summer plumage, which was shot in the summer of
1850, whilst running between the rails near the station at Stratford (40. xiii. 416).