70 EPPING FOREST
from the surrounding landowners. They used to breed
regularly in the Rectory garden at Loughton. A pair
used to breed at Knighton, but I have not observed
them for many years. I know of two pairs breeding in
the neighbourhood this year, 1897.
Jay. The character of the thicket has greatly encouraged
this bird. The harsh rasping note with which he greets
an intruder, and his sly ways as he flits ahead, always
impelled by curiosity but always out of reach, enliven
the Forest, and yet this is the only bird upon whose
unlimited increase in the Forest I would place a check.
He is cruelly destructive of all other birds' nests, except
those which build in holes. For this reason a solemn
order has gone forth from the Guildhall that the numbers
JAY.
are to be limited, and occasionally an effort is made to
destroy some of them, with, as I think, some effect in
increasing the numbers of lesser birds, and the liveliness
of the thickets.
Starling. Perhaps the most abundant bird in the district
after the sparrow, but he was a very rare bird in many
parts of England fifty years ago. In hard weather
about thirty come every morning to be fed on my lawn.
King Ousel. A fine cock-bird seen on Mr. Venables' wall
and in his garden at the entrance to Wanstead Park on
5th September 1877. " Many years ago I saw one in my
father's fields at Upton at the time of the spring migra-
tion."'—A. L. One was seen in the spring of 1884 by the
River Roding, and other instances have been recorded.
Song Thrush. Abundant in the autumn, but almost absent
in mid-winter.
Blackbird. Abundant. We owe much of the music of the
woods to these two birds.