SCOLOPACIDAE—REDSHANKS. 253
ford-le-Hope (where a friend saw birds which were evidently breed-
ing in May, 1888), though I believe at no inland localities in this
county.
Sheppard and Whitear state (9. 4;) that " this species is found solitary, and
also in flocks, on the ooze of the River Stour." Lindsey, who, writing from
Harwich in 1851, speaks of it as the " Pool Snipe," says (27. App. 50) that it
" is resident with us for more than half the year." Round Harwich it is still
very common and breeds in large numbers (Kerry). Mr. W. H. Hill, of South-
minster, in 1835, says (12. viii. 573) : "On this coast, on the immense flat oozy
banks which lie at the mouth of the Thames, this bird is to be found in flocks of
from ten to thirty or forty individuals, which are there called by the name of
'teuks.'" The Rev. J. C. Atkinson writes (36. 123):—this was
" one of the most familiar of all our birds to me in my youth. Many long
days have I spent amid their haunts on the Essex Saltings. * * * When the young
are newly hatched the parent birds betray excessive jealousy and anxiety at
the approach of either man or dog to their resort. They have sometimes come
and settled on the ground within two or three paces of me and at others flown
so directly towards me as to suggest the possible intention of attacking me.
piping most plaintively and incessantly the while. This conduct is designated
by the term ' mobbing,' on the Essex Marshes."
In 1865, Lieut Legge says (34. 91) they were very numerous round Shoebury
from the beginning of September onwards, frequenting the salt-water creeks
round Foulness Island, on the 'muddy banks of which they fed during low tide.
He adds that a good many were to be seen about during the whole summer, as
they bred in a marsh on Canvey Island and elsewhere. Writing from Shoebury-
ness in 1866, he says (Ibis, N. S, ii. 420) : " In the low pasture grounds of the
south-eastern portion of this county, frequented by Vanellus cristatus for breed-
ing purposes, Totanus Calidris is to be found nesting in about equal numbers.
This year I found upwards of a score of nests in a low pasture of a few acres in
extent." Mr. A. J. Crosfield informs me that when on the edge of Dagenham
Lake on May 23rd, 1879, two pairs, which evidently had young, kept dashing
about overhead. They leave their breeding-grounds on the marshes round
Orsett and retire inland about the beginning of August, returning about the
middle of March (Sackett). Mr. Hope observes that it breeds in such large
numbers in the marshes along the coast that he has often found eight or ten
nests in as many minutes in the grass shut up for hay. On May 21st, 1882,
Mr. C. Beckwith, landlord of The Sluice Inn on Canvey Island, who is a good
observer, found five Redshanks' eggs in one nest (Bird). On the Old Hall
Marshes, Tollesbury, on June 12th, 1888, Mr. Fitch and myself found a nest
containing two eggs—the beginning, doubtless, of a second brood. Within a
couple of yards was a Lark's nest containing three eggs. Mr. G. W. Brewis, of
Chesterford Park, has a young bird shot by himself beside the ornamental water
close to his house in Oct., 1887. Mr. Robert Page informs me that considerable
numbers have occasionally been taken in his Marsh House Decoy.
Spotted Redshank : Totanus fuscus.
Of this passing visitor, which occurs in Britain chiefly during
migration, I only know of the occurrence in Essex of five or six
examples, though it is probably not very rare.
Henry Doubleday says (10) that in 1832 he saw one in a Collection at Col-
chester, obtained on the adjacent coast. Mr. Ambrose has received specimens