BIRDS 80. Cirl Bunting. Emberiza cir/us, Linn. Possibly a resident, but so rare that it seems best to regard it as an occasional visitor merely. 81. Little Bunting. Emberiza pusilla, Pallas. A very rare straggler to Britain. A female bird of the year was taken with some linnets and yellow hammers by some bird-catchers at Southchurch in September 1892. It was kept alive for some days, but soon died and was thrown away, though not till it had been seen and identified by Mr. J. G. Keulemans. 82. Reed-Bunting. Emberiza schainiclus, Linn. A fairly common resident in suitable localities throughout the county. 83. Snow -Bunting. Plectrophtnax niva/is (Linn.). A winter visitor. In mild seasons it is uncommon, but during severe weather it is abundant on our coast and sometimes appears inland. 84. Lapland Bunting. Calcarius lapponicus (Linn.). An occasional visitor. One was shot near Waltham Abbey in 1872 (Essex Naturalist, iv. 1 1 8). The bird has probably occurred and been overlooked on other occasions. 85. Starling. Sturnus vu/garis, Linn. A very abundant resident which is rapidly becoming increasingly numerous. Enormous flocks are sometimes seen. Cream-coloured, white, and pied varieties are by no means uncommon. 86. Starling. Pastor roseus Rose - coloured (Linn.). A rare and occasional visitor. Some half- dozen individuals only are known to have been met with in Essex during the last half- century. 87. Chough. Pyrrhocorax graculus (Linn.). A rare and occasional visitor. Two indi- viduals were observed off Harwich on April 2, 1888 (Zoologist, 1888, p. !8s). Formerly, when it was a more abundant species, it visited us doubtless more often ; but it is now everywhere decreasing in numbers. 88. Nucifraga caryocatacttt Nutcracker. (Linn.). A rare and irregular straggler. In or about 1859, in the month of September, one was shot at Horkesley, another at Ardleigh, and another at Boxted, all adjoining parishes. Another was killed at Tollesbury in Sep- tember 1872 (see Birds of Essex, p. 131). Two examples were obtained in the county in the autumn of 1900 one (which had been seen about for a fortnight) at Bradwell- on-Sea on October 27, and one in Epping Forest on November 5. 89. Jay. A common Garrulus glandarius (Linn.), resident in well wooded dis- tricts, in spite of incessant persecution. 90. Magpie. Pica rustica (Scopoli). Formerly a common resident in all parts of the county, but now almost exterminated in most districts through persecution. It is now more numerous round our coast than elsewhere, especially, I think, in the Dengie Hundred, where it is, possibly, increasing in number. 91. Jackdaw. Corvus monedula, Linn. An abundant resident, breeding commonly in places where an abundance of ancient timber affords suitable nesting sites. 92. Raven. Corvus corax, Linn. Now only, it is to be feared, a rare autumn or winter visitor, though until quite recently a resi- dent in small numbers. Early in last century it was fairly common in the county, and not a few ' raven trees,' in which it bred regularly, are still pointed out. It continued to breed occasionally in the inland parts of the county up to about the year 1865. In the vicinity of the coast it lingered somewhat longer. There were nests annually near Thundersley up to the year 1880, and a pair bred every year from 1871 to about 1878 in a clump of firs in the park of Lawford Hall. Up to at least the year 1890 the raven continued to breed regularly though in very small numbers among the islands and lowlands on the coast, in Dengie Hundred and the vicinity of the Blackwater Estuary within forty miles of the Metropolis making its nest in the tall elms which stand in the hedgerows and form a striking feature of the landscape in the district indicated. On April 15, 1889, I visited a ' raven tree ' a tall elm on Osey Island, in which a pair had been known to breed for many years, but found it unoccupied. The nest used the year before lay rotting in a ditch below the tree, having been poked down by a lad with a stick the previous summer because a pair of hawks had laid COB in it after the ravens had left it. The old birds had been seen about the island however a few weeks before, and had commenced a 241 3
