12
is Soils in Essex IV (Tendring district, TM12) and in
preparation, Soils in Essex V (Halstead district, TL83).
Information on other publications dealing with the soils
of England and Wales may be had from the Soil Survey at
the above address.
"The Sand and Gravel Resources of the Country between
Hatfield Heath and Great Waltham, Essex"
Description of 1S25000 sheets TL51/61. By R.J. Marks,
being Mineral Assessment Report No. 52 produced by the
Institute of Geological Sciences. H.M.S.O. 1980
The map depicts the extent of sand and gravel over this
large area of central Essex. Of particular interest to
Members is that the base map at 1:25000 depicts the geology
in great detail and shows field boundaries, making this an
excellent map for botanical field studies of plant dis-
tribution and geology.
The explanatory book has detailed descriptions of the
geology and in particular the character of the sands and
gravels.
The Report should be available through the County Library
Service.
RON ALLEN
THE NIGHTINGALE AND ITS SONG
Few bird watchers can have heard and not been moved by the
song of a nightingale. Listening to those powerful notes
in the dead of a warm May night leaves an unfor getable
memory. But although I have known the song for longer,
it was as recently as 1976 that I first heard birds singing
in the wild. Then, as part of the national nightingale
census sponsored by the BTO, a friend and I surveyed many
square miles of the mid-Sussex countryside, bumping along
narrow lanes in the early hours of the morning in an