of twenty and sold to the London markets. Another method of capture was to find a bush roosting site,
and in the dark of night put a net up against one side of the bush and from the other shake the bush
and turn on a bright light to awake the sleeping birds and cause them to fly in terror away from the
light and into the net. Keeper Butt recalls capturing two bird-trappers near the Robin Hood Inn using
this method. Fines, if caught, were hefty - Keeper Butt recalled three bird-limers being fined £1 19s.
each in 1900, a large sum of money. The lovely azure blue of the Kingfisher's plumage was a popular
addition to ladies' hats even into the early years of this century. In October 1906 Sidney Butt found a
net, with lead weights across the bottom to hold it in place, spread across the Ching Brook, Glegg
(1929) reported 22 Kingfishers being caught in such a net on the Ching Brook in August 1911. Henry
Doubleday in 1846 (Christy, 1890) feared that Woodlarks in the Forest would be taken by the London
bird-catchers. Buxton (1911) mentions various other species caught by bird-catchers, among them the
Great Grey Shrike (one captured by a bird-catcher in the Forest was kept caged by Henry Doubleday);
Goldfinches captured on Wanstead Flats; Linnet, Redpoll, Greenfinch; Mealy Redpoll, a number
trapped by J. L. English and Henry Doubleday, presumably to be stuffed for the Doubleday collection
of birds. A female Pied Flycatcher was caught by a bird-catcher in 1877. In 1858 a Leytonstone
bird-catcher is reported to have taken Nightingales in numbers about the avenues, Leytonstone.
In 1896, an application was made by the Epping Forest Bird Protection League to the Home
Secretary for an Order covering the whole of the Epping Forest area (to include all the parishes) as a
protected area against the depredations of the bird-catchers (EN X p.56). The application was partly
successful as this report in the Essex Naturalist (XI p.12) shows.
'Nearly all the keepers speak well of the effect of the new orders. The Theydon keeper
remarks:- "Bird catching by the professionals from London is practically extinct around my
beat, as one is not seen now where twenty or thirty would be three or four years ago, the
police being very smart on them." The keepers all commend the way in which the police are
endeavouring to enforce the law, but at Waltham it is stated that "on Sunday the place is
infested with bird catchers and youths frequent the lanes bordering the forest, ruthlessly
destroying every nest they can find." At Loughton also the bird-catchers seem to be somewhat
rampant, and efforts are needed to put a stop to the evil. The fines inflicted are far too small;
greater rigour on the part of the magistrates would do much good in checking the incursions
of the fraternity.'
Alice Hibbert-Ware wrote (EN XXIII p.69) ...'During my first two seasons here (at White Cottage,
Gillwell Lane in 1920 and 1921), there was scarcely a day in early spring when I had not to address
boys and men who were either wantonly beating the hedges to find nests or were equipped with
apparatus and cages for catching birds by the liming process'. Bird trapping, sadly, still occurs. As
recently as 1990 an individual was apprehended at Wanstead Sewage Farm with 29 caged finches.
Egg collectors were always, and still are, a problem for birds in the Forest, usually young lads.
Keeper Butt recalled catching a group of four in the Forest, who were promptly brought before the
Bench and fined. There are a number of references to egg collectors in the Wren reports on the birds
of southern Epping Forest in the years 1977-1980.
The Epping Forest Bird Protection League
A glance at many 19th century bird records, particularly some of the rarer species, usually includes
the phrases 'shot', 'collected by' or 'the eggs were taken by'. There is not often a mention of the words
'observed by'. To fulfil the Victorian mania for collecting things natural, most bird species were
persecuted in one way or another, the rarer species ending up under glass domes in parlours or in the
cases of serious collectors. Most towns and some villages in the 19th century had their resident, often
amateur, taxidermist (Frost, 1981). Henry Doubleday of Epping was the most notable local Victorian
amateur taxidermist. Towards the end of the century, many people began to take a more protective
attitude to birds. The Wild Birds' Protection Act was passed through Parliament in 1880, and the Royal
Society for the Protection of Birds (R.S.P.B.) was founded (originally as the Fur, Fin and Feather
Group) at Didsbury near Manchester in 1889. An amendment to the 1880 Act in 1895 allowing County
Councils to prohibit the taking of birds' eggs of particular species and from particular areas (EN IX
p.44) caused the Essex Field Club to petition the Essex County Council for the greater protection of
its coastal bird fauna. Additionally, Edward North Buxton in 1895 took steps to enhance the protection
of birds in the Epping Forest area, extending the protected area to include not just Epping Forest itself,
but the adjacent estates, parks and other large areas of privately owned land and securing the agreement
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