Victorian Taxidermy

Victorian Taxidermy by Thomas Nelson Hudson.

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Victorian Antique Taxidermy

Thomas Hudson Nelson

1856-1916
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Thomas Hudson Nelson, donator of the birds at the Dorman Museum. The taxidermist responsible for the taxidermy for TH Nelson was George Mussel, of Middlesborough.

Mounted birds: principal collection is that of Thomas Hudson Nelson, author of the Birds of Yorkshire donated in 1914 and mostly on display. Mounted mammals and reptile specimens from Alfred Pease and others. Mostly 19th century. Thomas Hudson Nelson, was born in Bishop Auckland, and was intended for the law ; however a breakdown in health meant that he moved to Redcar and became a well known local naturalist.

The birds at the Dorman Museum. Image copywrite Mr Lee Yafano

He seems to have been a jolly and rather eccentric fellow, who used to dine on anything he could get his hands on (Oystercatchers, spoonbills, and there is even mention of roast seagull), and is said to have slept with a string round his toe, hanging out of the window, so that the local fishermen could call him out if any interesting specimens were to be had.
; His collection of local books and his stuffed birds are in the Dorman Museum at Middlesborough, whence the above summary of his career, from their website.The early part of the scrapbook is all TB Wood; it includes a photograph of "that celebrated naturalist Thomas H. Nelson supposed to have been published sometime about the year 1881." Then follow verses on the hunting of the Curlew "Guns on every side surround hime,/Weapons all of fearful build:/He dare not o'er the waters skim,/For if he venture he'll be Killed." and there are a number of very lively caricatures of shooting parties .However midway in the book the obituary of TB Wood is pasted in and most of the later illustrations are by W. Woodhouse, a more proficient but less lively artist. His most striking piece is the watercolour for the illuminated titlepage of Nelson's best known work, The birds of Yorkshire, 1907.

The birds at the Dorman Museum. Image copywrite Mr Lee Yafano

Introduction

The first half of the nineteenth century saw a remarkable explosion of interest in natural history in Britain. At that time, an interest in birds could take several forms. One was the thirst for knowledge, and particularly the identification of previously unknown species. Another was the love of beautiful things. A third form, unfortunately, was frequently the desire to blast them out of the sky in large numbers in the name of 'sport'. The rise of associations or societies to defend our feathered friends eventually led to the establishment of the Society (later the Royal Society) for the Protection of Birds in 1889. However, the first significant bird protection society, the Association for the Protection of Sea-Birds, was established in 1868 in Bridlington. Papers of its founder, the Rev. Henry Frederick Barnes (later Barnes-Lawrence) and two other prominent members, John Cordeaux and the Rev. FO Morris (left), are to be found in the Brynmor Jones Library. All are now relatively unknown, but each, in their own way, made significant contributions to the world of ornithology.

The birds at the Dorman Museum.Image copywrite Mr Lee Yafano

Both John Cordeaux and the Rev. FO Morris were active in the movement to protect birds. Morris's serious interest began in about 1867, when in the early summer he presented a petition to the House of Commons calling for a heavy tax on the possession of guns. He became a vigorous letter-writer and campaigner. When The Animal World first appeared in October 1869 its chief contributors were Frank Buckland, Frances Power Cobbe, and Morris. His first article, entitled 'British birds', entered a strong plea for their protection. For the rest of his life he consistently argued that anything associated with hunting (including game-keepers) should be curtailed or taxed. He, like John Ruskin, was also a strong anti-vivisectionist, and his minor works included A defence of our dumb companions against the cowardly cruelty of the experimentation on living animals. He shared his concern with Cordeaux, and with his colleague and friend the Rev. Henry Frederick Barnes (later Barnes-Lawrence), vicar of Bridlington between 1849 and 1874.

The Dorman Museum.

The Dorman Museum.

Barnes founded the Association for the Protection of Sea-Birds (APSB) in 1868 in Bridlington. During the 1860s the Victorian obsession with egg collecting and shooting wild animals, and particularly birds, reached a peak. The slaughter of sea birds for 'sport' was widespread, but a noted spot was the area of high cliffs at Bempton and Flamborough between Bridlington and Scarborough on the Yorkshire coast. The mass destruction by sea-borne parties from Bridlington was graphically described by Charles Waterton in his Essays on Natural History (1838). It was estimated that in the 18 miles of coast between Bridlington and Scarborough between the months of April and August some 120,000 birds were taken annually, of which about 108,000 were shot.

The Dorman Museum.

The Dorman Museum. The day of the opening of the Egyptian room.

The Dorman Museum. The Russian Brown Bear, most likely a Kodiak Grizzly

Day-trippers, many from the Sheffield region, were particularly active in this way. There was also commercial exploitation of birds and their feathers for the millinery trade. Cordeaux's interest was perhaps sparked by his own visits to Flamborough. After one of these in April 1865 he noted that a party of five had shot 600 guillemot and razorbills in one day. In October 1867 one man boasted to him that he had killed 4000 gulls that season.

The birds at the Dorman Museum. Image copywrite Mr Lee Yafano

In June 1869 it reached the Statute Book as the Sea Birds Preservation Act. This provided protection for 35 species by introducing a closed season running annually from 1 April to 1 August. The first successful prosecution under the Act took place in Bridlington on 10 July 1869 after a Mr Tasker, of Sheffield, had deliberately shot 28 birds. He was fined a total of Ł3 19s.

The Climmers

The right of gathering the eggs belongs to the farmers tenanting the adjacent lands, and this privilege is con- ceded to the men who work for them when egging is out of season. * 'climming" is a very ancient institution, having been in vogue for upwards of two hundred years, while one family at Buckton can boast of four generations who have followed this profession, viz. : William Hodgson ; his son Grindale, who died at the age of eighty about the year 1864 ; Edward, son of the last named, who climbed for upwards of thirty years ; and, lastly, John, son of Edward, who has been a " dimmer " since about the year 1885. Seventy to eighty years ago, that is, about 1825 to 1830, there were four gangs, led respectively by Aaron Leppington of Buckton ; old George Londesborough, or " Lowney," of Bempton ; Grindale Hodg- son, and Fox.

The birds at the Dorman Museum. Image copywrite Mr Lee Yafano

Old Ned Hodgson can recollect when, some fifty years ago, only two gangs of climbers went out at the Bempton, Buckton, and Speeton cliffs, who divided the ground between them ; one of these was captained by George Londesborough, and the other by Grindale Hodgson. The gangs consisted of two men only, one to climb and the other to manage the ropes ; as a boy, Ned Hodgson used to be taken to help his father in coiling up the ropes and to assist in hauling up, while sometimes the men's wives were requisitioned to give a helping hand. A few years later three in a gang went out, but dangerous places were not " dumb." The cliffs at or near to Flamborough were worked by the fishermen, and, at the period referred to, the birds bred abundantly from the Headland westward, while in little bays, now entirely deserted, there was then a large avian population, as is exemplified by a spot near Thornwick called " Chatter Trove," from the noise the birds are said to have made. Many other portions of these cliffs have appellations derived from some incident connected with the bird-life, and handed down from father to son, e.g., " Bird's Shoot," " Hateley (Hartley) Shoot," " White-wings," where for some years, up to 1897, a white-winged Guillemot used to fly out ; " White Breadloaf," so called from a man asking Ned Hodgson's help, who replied, " Whatever's on that spot you shall have " ; the eggs were given to the man, who purchased with the proceeds of their sale the first loaf of white bread.

"The Climmer"

The present painting shows a "climmer" at work at Bempton Cliffs. "Climming" involved lowering men over the edge of the cliffs to collect eggs from nesting sea birds, and was used to supplement income. A dangerous practice with virtually no safety equipment ,the climmer is wearing nothing but a cap stuffed with straw as some protection against falling rocks from above, and a Guernsey jumper. 300-400 hundred eggs could be collected in a day. Guillemot eggs, which are large for the size of bird, were particularly sought after. Despite the danger, few accidents were recorded. The practice declined after the Second World War but continued until 1954 when it was finally made illegal.

Extracts from "The Birds of Yorkshire" dated 1907

This book contains some fascinating insights into the period, the attitude towards wildlife at the time and the recorded scarcity of some of the birds even during this period.

The Climmers of Bempton Cliffs

There were four men in an egg gathering gang, one suspended by the rope, who climbed down to collect the eggs, signalling by a handline and using his feet to keep himself from the cliff face (similar to the abseiling of today) and three at the top. It was on these three men, and the strength of the rope, that the climber depended. Of course the rope was carefully examined each time, but the cliff's razor sharp flints could fray it, and lumps of loose chalk or flint, knocked out of place by startled birds, could fall and hit the climber, so that most of them wore thick head coverings.
t was just such an accident that befell the egg climber Joss Major on 7th June, 1910, when he was struck on the head and knocked unconscious. Finding that he did not respond to their signals his mates lowered him, and one of them went down to see what had happened. When the news was relayed to the men at the top a visitor from York, Mr. H. Brown, ran four miles to Flamborough, then cycled to Bridlington for Dr. Wetwan, who drove to the scene and immediately went over the cliff. He found Major with a jagged head wound and a fractured skull and, when it was realised that the climber could not be raised in the normal way, elected to wait with him until the Rocket Brigade arrived to rescue the injured man and take him to Lloyd's Hospital at Bridlington. When Dr. Wetwan appeared over the cliff he was cheered but said modestly that he didn't know why there was such a fuss about an action that was only plain duty, when men and boys risked their lives daily for a few eggs.
Demand for the eggs soared during the Second World War, when hens' eggs were in short supply. In May 1945, the Yorkshire Post noted that kittiwake eggs were going at 2s 6d a dozen, and there was a brisk trade in guillemot eggs at 4s a dozen, though they had been as costly as 6d each earlier in the war. Conventional wisdom had it that guillemot eggs were best eaten soft-boiled with plenty of salt, pepper and vinegar to mask the slightly fishy taste.
There was, though, a terrible environmental price to pay for the climmers' activities. So many eggs were taken from nests - some estimates put it at 130,000 a year - that the guillemot population went into decline. The bell tolled for the climmers in 1954, when the Wild Birds Protection Act came in to force and outlawed the raiding of nests.

The birds at the Dorman Museum. Image copywrite Mr Lee Yafano

COMMON CORMORANT Phalacrocorax carbo

Resident, breeding on the cliffs between Whitby and Scarborough, and near Filey ; formerly nested in several other localities. The majority retire southward in winter. The earliest allusion to the Cormorant in Yorkshire was made by Pennant, who, on his journey to Scotland in 1769, visited Flamborough on July 3rd, and remarked of the birds there : " Multitudes were swimming about, others swarmed in the air, and almost stunned us with the variety of their croaks and screams ; I observed among them Corvorants." (" A Tour in Scotland," 1771, p. 15.)
Phalacrocorax carbo. Common Cormorant Frequent off Scar- borough ; a specimen of this bird was taken at Kexby, six miles from. York, by a person who was angling for pike ; he had left his line for a few minutes fastened to the banks of the Derwent, on his return he saw the bird sitting on the bank, and, on reaching it, found it had dived, swallowed the bait, and was held fast by the line. A. Strickland says that it breeds upon the cliffs at Flamborough, but appears greatly to have diminished of late years.
Although designated as resident in the county, the majority of our Great Cormorants leave the Yorkshire coast and move southward as winter approaches, returning in spring to their nesting quarters. In the north a colony formerly existed on Huntcliffe, near Saltburn, and the late C. C. Oxley informed me that, when he lived at Redcar, he could, in a good light, and by the aid of a powerful telescope, recognise the birds sitting on their nests, although fully five miles distant. The formation of the railway, passing near the edge of the cliffs, caused the birds to leave and join another colony between Boulby and Staithes, above a smugglers' cave locally known as " Gin Hole " (a large boulder on the beach below still retains the appellation of " Lintie Cock Stone," from the faqt that the Cormorants used it as a favourite perching jpisUe) ; there they bred until 1867, when some mischievous youths lowered a lighted tar barrel at night on to the nesting 'edges',; and so terrified "the occupants that they forsook that locality,* and established themselves nearer Whitby on Kettleness Point, where I saw about thirty pairs nesting in 1880. In May 1887, there were upwards of twenty pairs, but again persecution followed, many were shot from the nests, and the opening of the Loftus and Whitby Railway, which runs near the Point, finally banished them from that spot ; in 1889 only one pair was seen and they did not nest ; a few returned to the Boulby site where odd pairs bred until 1900 ; in 1901 a nest was reported between Boulby and Hummersea, and on one occasion a young bird was seen with two old ones on the boulders on the beach ; in April 1902, I saw a Cormorant sitting on " White Stone," a perching boulder, but could not detect any signs of a nest, though during the summer months since the year 1904, two pairs of old birds passed Redcar daily, going to and from the Tees- mouth, where they obtain food for their young, and I am of opinion that they were nesting at Boulby. The bulk of the Kettleness Cormorants have evidently gone still further south, and about thirty or forty pairs now nest near the Whitby High Lights, two miles from that town. When they bred at Boulby and Kettleness, long strings, sometimes numbering from twenty to thirty individuals, might be observed passing Redcar regularly in the early morning to fish in the Tees estuary, returning to the cliffs in the afternoon, and some* * At Staithes a humorous story is related that, on the morning following the episode of the tar barrel, an old fisherman was on the beach near " Lintie Cock Stone," and heard two Cormorants conversing. One said to his companion, " What's thou think o' that performance last neet ? " " Why," replied the other, " Ah'm gaine tae flit fra' this place I " times I have watched these birds taking a " short cut " behind the town.

The birds at the Dorman Museum. Image copywrite Mr Lee Yafano

At Peak, on the north of Scarborough, a colony of some fifty pairs was in existence before the railway was opened, but they decreased in numbers afterwards. Several years ago a Scarborough man shot eighteen out of twenty nesting birds with a rifle ; the following year none were noted, but a few pairs have since returned. Between Scarborough and Filey several pairs find nesting places ; Mr. Thomas Carter in 1884 observed Cormorants there, and was told by a fisherman that he had seen a nest and three eggs at Scout Nab (Zool, 1884, p. 446). I am informed by Mr. J. Fountain of Filey that he had a clutch of five eggs brought to him in the year 1902 ; in 1906 there were eight nests. Concerning its connection with Flamborough, Pennant's remarks are quoted above. The Cormorant used to be a familiar object near the Headland until the " sixties," but there again senseless persecution has banished it as a nesting species. The breeding sites were near the Lighthouse, the Danes' Dyke, on the Bempton range, and also on Raincliffe, where Charles Waterton found it breeding in 1834, an d descended to examine the nests. Mr. M. Bailey remarks that one or two pairs returned in 1873, and in 1880 there were two nests ; the Bempton climbers say that some four or five birds frequent a certain portion of the cliffs, but there is no proof of their nesting there now.
The above mentioned constitute all the natural breeding stations of the species, though on the Holderness coast, as Mr. T. Petch and the Rev. A. Donovan inform me, an unusual site has been appropriated on the wreck of a sailing ship, the " Earl of Beaconsfield," that went ashore near Aldborough in 1887.* One of the masts is left standing to warn fishing cobles of the danger to navigation, and on the crosstrees of the main mast several pairs of Cormorants have established themselves ; in 1893 it was reported that a pair had nested and brought off young, and since then they have been regularly observed ; sixteen were seen on 3ist August 1900, and nestlings have been recognised. In winter some return to the ship at sunset, but in early autumn they are " at home " after the tide begins to flow, when contests frequently take place for the post of honour. As previously remarked the majority of the breeding birds retire southward in winter, returning to their nesting resorts early in spring, though some remain in the Teesmouth neighbourhood during the winter months, and the numbers of those wintering appear tfl have increased of late years. On 26th December 1887, one came on board the Tees Light Vessel. At Whitby, Scarborough, Flamborough, and the Humber (at which latter place the late J. Cordeaux considered they were increasing), they are noted in limited numbers, in winter coming at times to fish close inshore and in the harbours. In spring I have seen Cormorants sitting on the rails at the head of Coatham Pier (now demolished), drying their wings, and sometimes they allowed an approach within thirty or forty yards before taking flight ; occasionally they alight on Salt Scar at low tide, and in March 1899 some used to- perch on a portion of a wreck standing out of the water.
The Cormorant has been caught on fishing lines and in nets shot in deep water ; two were captured at Bridlington on hooks when five fathoms of line were out, and in the Tees Bay they have at times been entangled in the salmon fishing nets. This ocean-loving species has been noted at places far removed from salt water and in most parts of the county, an enumeration of which is needless, though one or two instances may be cited : first is that mentioned by Marmaduke Tunstall of Wy cliff e-on -Tees, as " shot close to my house (in September 1782), though nearly thirty miles from the main sea " (Tunst. MS. p. 100) ; it is noted in Fothergill's list in Whitaker's " Richmondshire " in 1823 ; Charles Waterton's residence, Walton Hall, was often visited in winter by Cormorants, and, after fishing in the lake, they would preen their feathers on the terrace, within ten yards of the win- dows. Near York one was taken on a fishing line at Kexby (before 1844) ; at various times individuals have been killed from the turrets and walls of Beverley Minster ; at Hudders- field an example occurred in November 1870, and another was shot whilst sitting on the church top at Mappleton, near Hornsea, as recorded by Mr. Barchard in the Field, 9th August 1890. Formerly small parties occasionally ascended the river Hull for some miles above Beverley, where they are said to have been taken on night lines baited with roach and set for pike, but they have not been noticed of late years ; in March 1903, Mr. W. Morris saw one on the Lune at Sedbergh.
The nests at Whitby High Lights are much lighter in construction than those I have examined elsewhere, being usually not more massive than Gulls' nests, and in the year 1903, amongst the materials used by one pair of birds, was found a child's toy whip.

GREAT WHITE HERON. Ardea alba

Accidental visitant from south-eastern Europe and Africa, of extremely rare occurrence. This bird is an inhabitant of the Lower Danube and Black Sea areas, south-east Europe, north Africa, and India. A reference to it in Willughby's " Ornithology " may possibly be connected with Yorkshire ; that celebrated ornithologist's correspondent, R. Johnson, being quoted as follows : " For Mr. Johnson [of Brignall, near Greta Bridge], who hath seen the Great White Heron in England, puts it down for a distinct kind in his method of birds communicated to us." (Will. " Orn." 1678, pp. 279-80.) Thomas Allis, in 1844, wrote : Ardea alba. White Heron F. O. Morris mentions one shot near Beverley a few years ago and now in the possession of Jas. Hall, Esq. of Scorborough, near Beverley ; the same specimen is referred to by Hugh Reid. Dr. Farrar says a specimen of this very rare visitant was shot at New Hall by my friend the late John S. Townend, Esq., and by some means got into the possession of Sir Joseph Radclyffe, Bart. ; another at Hornsea Mere, in the collection of A. Strickland, Esq., is reported by him, and noticed in Charlesworth's " Magazine of Natural History " ; but those who have quoted that paper have mistaken Scorborough for Scarborough, which is forty miles from it.
The Great White Heron is a very rare, accidental visitant, the Yorkshire occurrences, authenticated by the actual capture of the specimens, being but three in number. The first was recorded at the British Association's meeting at Newcastle-on-Tyne, in August 1838, by Arthur Strickland, who stated that one was seen for several weeks at Hornsea Mere, and was caught about 1825. This example forms part of the Strickland collection, now in the York Museum, and was recorded in the Report of the British Association (1838, p. 106) ; the " Magazine of Natural History " (1839, p. 21) ; and Zoologist (1856, p. 5035). The second specimen, which is in full summer plumage, was killed in 1834 by John Norris on the river Hull at Aike, near Beverley, and was sold to the late James Hall of Scor- borough. At his decease it was purchased on behalf of the authorities of the York Museum, and is now in the Rudston collection in that institution (see Neville Wood's " Naturalist," November 1838 ; and Yarrell's " Brit. Birds," 1843, ii. p. 455).
Near Barnsley, one was obtained at New Hall, in 1821, by the late J. S. Townend, and was formerly in the possession of Sir Joseph Radcliffe, Bart. (Farrar's MS. 1844). This specimen is considered doubtful (Harting's " Handbook," 2nd Ed. p. 440). The above records are all mentioned by Allis in his Report, already quoted. A later occurrence, reported by Mr. A. S. Hutchinson of Derby, is unquestionably referable to the species under notice. The recorder, a naturalist of great experience, writes in 1902 that, in the summer of 1868, he saw a Great White Heron perched on a fir tree at Clay Wheel Dam, near Wadsley Bridge, where he watched it at close quarters for nearly half an hour, and had no doubt whatever as to its identity.

COMMON BITTERN. Botaurus stellaris

Winter visitant, of uncommon occurrence ; sometimes numerous in severe seasons. Probably nested formerly in the Doncaster Carrs and in Holderness. Historically, the connection of the Bittern with Yorkshire is of great antiquity, for we find allusion to it in the provision made for the great banquet given at Cawood in honour of the enthronization of Geo. Nevell as Archbishop of York in 1466, the sixth year of Edward the Fourth's reign. Amongst the delicacies provided were " In Bittors. c.c. iiii." (Leland's "Collectanea.")
We are also told, in the Northumberland Household Book, that the price of " Bytters," for Earl Percy's table at the Castles of Wressill and Lekinfield, in 1512, was fixed at " I2d. a pece so they be good " ; and the bird figured in the menus at the marriage feasts of Sir John Neville's daughters at Chevet, near Wakefield, in the years 1526 and 1530 ; as also in the year 1528, when Sir John acted at Sheriff, and his charges included " 10 bytters, 133. 4d." Thomas Allis, in his Report, 1844, wrote : Botaurus stellaris. Common Bittern Has been met with a few times near Sheffield ; I have no mention of it from near Halifax ; very rare near Huddersfield. W. Eddison has only known of two specimens one of which, in his own possession, was shot at Dalton ; Dr. Farrar has been unable to obtain a specimen for his own collection, but says several specimens were shot in 1830, one at Wortley Park, .and several others between that place and Pontefract ; it is rare near Leeds, it used to frequent Askham Bogs, near York, but is now scarce though occasionally pretty abundant ; in 1837 H. Chapman, bird-stuffer -of York, had a dozen specimens through his hands ; since that time few have been seen, two were killed in the neighbourhood last winter ; F. O. Morris says it is not uncommonly met with some winters ; in 1831 Mr. Reid of Doncaster had twenty-five specimens brought him ; H. Reid himself reports to me that a few years ago not less than fifteen were shot near Doncaster, and that during the same year he observed that many had been killed all over England. Arthur Strickland observes "It is probable that before the drainage of the Carrs this bird was common in this district, but at present a single bird only is occasionally found, generally in the autumn or winter ; but in January of the winter of 1831 a singular flight visited this country, stated in some of the country newspapers to have arrived from the north of Ireland ; at that time from what came under my own observa- tion, what was stated to me by others, and mentioned in the newspapers, I collected a list of upwards of sixty that had been killed in this county, besides many others in different parts of the kingdom."
This interesting species, now, unfortunately, no longer resident in the county, was well known in the early part of the last century ; and, as will be seen from the references to the Archbishop of York's feast in Edward the Fourth's reign, and again at the marriage of Elizabeth Neville in 1526, the Bittern figured prominently as an article of food, together with many other fowl which are only known to present day naturalists as rare and occasional visitants. In considering historically the distribution of this bird, we find that accomplished and old-time naturalist, Francis Willughby, in his " Ornithology " (1678, p. 25), stated that " Mr. Johnson [of Brignall, near Greta Bridge] has in an evening heard the drumming of the Bittern a mile off. This, I suppose, is the bird which the vulgar call the Night Raven and have great dread of," The celebrated North Riding naturalist, Marmaduke Tunstall, also remarked (Tunst. MS. 1784, p. 85), that many were in the neighbourhood of his residence ( Wycliffe- on-Tees). Another favourite resort of the bird was Askham Bog, near the city of York, where the father of Mr. James Backhouse reported one so recently as the winter of 1874-75. In the West Riding, before the drainage of the " Carrs " on the outskirts of the famous level of Hatfield Chase, it was frequently noticed, as also around Doncaster, and in the Western Ainsty.
In " Historical Notices of Doncaster," by Chas. W. Hat- field (1866, p. 22), Mr. Samuel Crawshaw, who died at Bulby in 1813, aged 74, is quoted as follows : " The Bittern began to desert the Carrs about the year 1750. The peculiar sound of the male forms to this day (1866) a topic of conversation of the villagers of Bulby ; they were common, and, from the beginning of spring t6 the end of autumn, indications of their presence rent the air hence the distich : " When on Potteric Carr the Butter Bumps cry. The women of Bulby say summer is nigh." It used to be abundant formerly in the low grounds and marshes of east Yorkshire, and a farmhouse, not far from the site of the old Meaux Decoy, was called " Butter-bump Hall," from the continuous booming of these birds which bred in the adjacent marsh ; an old couplet ran : " When the Butther-bumps cry,Summer is nigh."
Mr. F. Boyes has heard old people relate how 6n stuT summer evenings it could be heard from close to the town of Beverley as it boomed on the town moor, but drainage and cultivation have banished it from many of its ancient summer haunts ; it is, however, not a very rare bird in winter, and in severe weather, when frozen out of its secluded retreats, it is compelled to seek food in more open places where it falls a prey to the gunner ; one or more may be found in a certain locality almost any time during the winter months.
A considerable flight of these birds took place in the north of England in the year 1831, when Strickland and Allis together collected a list of sixty occurrences in Yorkshire ; Hugh Reid of Doncaster had twenty-five brought to him, and many were killed in Wensleydale ; again in 1837 a dozen came into the hands of a York bird-stuff er (fide Allis's Report). The instances of its visits in recent years are too numerous for particularization ; it has been met with in most parts of the county, even in the remote dales of the north-west, though very irregularly, in severe winter weather, when it is driven out of its otherwise secure haunts in Continental Europe ; it was common early in 1875 in England, and the most recent visitations in unusual numbers were in the winters of 1899- 1900 and 1904-5, when it was reported in many localities in Yorkshire.
In spring it is now very seldom observed. One occurred at Cold Hiendly Reservoir, near Wakefield, on 25th May 1868 ; and in May 1886 two were seen near Gunnergate in Cleveland, and the booming heard. On the coast line at the migration period it has been noted on several occasions ; one was taken on the rocks at Cattersty, near Saltburn, in November 1868 ; and at Saltwick, near Whitby, a female specimen was captured on the shore in December 1890 ; while four were seen, on I3th October in the same year, by two Spurn boatmen when off at sea ; the birds passed close to the boat, anfl were described as in flight looking " exactly alike fore and aft ; legs straight out behind, and riec'k 'arid head in front." On 2ist November 1905 a male example" was killed by flying against the lighthouse at Spurn.
Cohc'ernhig the folk-lore and superstitions connected with this bird, Samuel Crawshaw of Bulby (before quoted in Hat- field's " Doncaster "), stated that an opinion was entertained that the Bittern thrust its bill into a reed, that served as a pipe for swelling the note above its natural pitch ; while others imagined that it put its head under water and then, by blowing violently, produced the booming ; old people in the Doncaster neighbourhood used to recite a doggerel rhyme referring to the weather prognostics from the Bittern's cry, which was not uncommonly heard in their youthful days : " There'll either be rain or else summat waur, When Butter-bumps sing upo' Potteric Carr." Marmaduke Tunstall asked (MS. 1784, p. 85), " Is the old error sufficiently refuted of the Bittern making the bumping or bellowing noise with its bill in a reed ? It is probably a cry to love as are most of the unusual cries of birds."
Local names : Bittor (Nevell's enthronization feast, 1466, Leland) ; Bytter or Bitter (Neville's marriage feast, 1526) ; Bittour or Bittor, and Night Raven ( Willughby, 1678) ; Bittoun (Dr. Lister of York, 1673) ; Mire Drum (Willughby, 1678, Tunstall, 1784, and Graves, 1808) ; Butter Bump, Butther Bump, and Bottle Bump (old names used in the neighbour- hood of theCarrs); Speckled Heronshew (Loftus-in-Cleveland).

SPOONBILL. Platalea leucorodia

Casual visitant from the Continent, of rare occurrence. Historically considered, the Spoonbill's association with Yorkshire history is of great antiquity, for we find it mentioned tinder the old name of " Sholarde " in the Northumberland Household Book, begun in 1512, at Earl Percy's Castles of Wressill and Lekinfield, where, in the list of birds to be supplied for " my Lordes owne Mees " are " Sholardes," the price fixed to be paid for them being 6d. Again, in the list of expenses returned for the Lammas Assizes, in 1528, during the Shrievalty of Sir John Neville of Chevet, near Wakefield, are " 12 Shovelardes, I2s."* Thomas Allis, in 1844, wrote : Platalea leucorodia. The Spoonbill F. O. Morris records one shot near Masham ; Dr. Farrar obtained a fresh killed specimen from Staincross in July 1833, but, from the state of its wings, thinks it must have escaped from confinement.
The Spoonbill is a rare casual visitant from the Continent, generally in spring or summer, the Yorkshire occurrences being so few that full details regarding each instance, so far as they are obtainable, may be set forth : One in July 1833, at Staincross, was mentioned by Thomas Allis in his Report, and also in Dr. Farrar's MS. (1844), though, from the state of its wings, it was judged the bird might have escaped from confinement.
At Masham, as stated by Allis, one was obtained in 1844. An example recorded by J. Hogg (Zool. 1845, p. 1172), killed some years previously on the Tees Marshes, may be a Durham specimen, although, in the absence of accurate details, it is permissible to mention the occurrence in the Yorkshire list. * In connection with this now obsolete name it may be of interest to mention that, some years ago, at my request, Mr. J. E. Harting investigated a case contained in the old Law Reports of Henry the Eighth's reign, with the result that it was found " Shovelards " at that time (1523), bred in company with Herons in the trees of Fulham Palace grounds. It may not be unreasonable, therefore, to suppose the bird may have nested in Yorkshire also at that period (see Harting, Zool. 1886, p. 8 1 et seq.). Mr. F. Boyes says he has been told by a very old sportsman that Spoonbills formerly bred in Leconfield Park, near Beverley, the ancient seat of the Percy family, but he could get no further information. The district is most suitable, adjoining, as it does, the old Carrs of East Yorkshire, and Herons bred there up to a recent period. The late W. Talbot, in his " Birds of Wakefield " (p. 26), mentioned one procured in 1850, by Mr. Firth, at Horbury Mill Dam.
The late Sir Wm. Milner stated (Zool. 1851, p. 3278), that, on 2nd August 1851, an adult female in his collection (now in the Leeds Museum), occurred at Wilberfoss, near York. The York Museum possesses an adult male from the Rudston collection, killed in 1865, at Hornby Decoy, by Anthony Savage, gamekeeper to the Duke of Leeds. The late Capt. Clark- Kennedy communicated (op. cit. 1868, p. 1135), particulars concerning a fine specimen, obtained in one of the early months of 1867 by the head keeper of Mr. J. C. D. Charlesworth, at Reeth, near Richmond. It was damaged in the head and too much mutilated for preserva- tion (op. cit. 1884, p. 138 ; and Tinkler, Nat. 1892, p. 322). Admiral Oxley of Ripon possesses a specimen which was taken at Masham in 1877.
An individual, in Mr. Thomas Boynton's collection at Bridlington, formerly had a place in the Bessingby collection, as the owner informs me, and was captured at Thorpe fish- ponds, near Bridlington, but no further particulars are obtainable. [An example of the FLAMINGO (Phocnicopterus roseus, Pallas), killed on the Swale in January 1896, was, in all prob- ability, an individual escaped from Lord Lilford's aviaries in Northamptonshire.]

BERNACLE GOOSE. Bernicla leucopsis (Bechstein).

Winter visitant, of irregular occurrence on the coast ; has occa- sionally been observed inland. The earliest known reference to this Goose as a Yorkshire bird occurs jn Willughby's " Ornithology " (1678, pp. 359, 360),, where it is stated that Mr. Jessop sent a specimen " out of Yorkshire." In Ray's correspondence is the letter accompany- ing the bird : " Broomhall, 25th November 1668. Mr. Jessop to Mr. Ray. Sir .... I have procured the skin of a great bird, which he that gave it me called a Scarfe ; but I believe it will prove a Bernicle. The description of it I sent to Mr. Willughby. ... I am, etc., Fra Jessop." (" Ray's Corresp.," Ed. Lank. 1848, p. 33.) Thomas Allis, 1844, wrote : Anser leucopsis. Bernicle Goose R. Leyland reports two being killed on Midgley Moor, 2nd September 1836 ; H. Reid says it is frequently shot near Doncaster in severe weather ; taken occasionally near Huddersfield on the Marsden, Slaithwaite, Meltham, and Holm- firth Moors ; occasionally met with near York ; H. Denny reports it as rare near Leeds, but one was shot at Rigton in 1837. A. Strickland reports that it may at times be found on the sea shore during severe winter weather, on the extensive flats of the Humber during low tides.
The Bernacle is of rare and irregular occurrence in winter on the coast ; it is met with occasionally on the Humber, where three were shot on Christmas Day 1875, and in 1891 Mr. L. West saw one at Brough in the higher portion of the estuary. It has also been obtained at long intervals in the neighbourhood of Bridlington and Flamborough ; at the latter place Mr. M. Bailey told me he had only had two or three specimens to preserve. It has occurred at Filey ; Scar- borough, where it is described as rare ; Robin Hood's Bay, and Loftus.
In Cleveland J. Hogg (Zool. 1845, p. 1178), mentioned it as " occasionally killed on the Tees, but a rare bird," and Morris recorded one procured from a flock of nine on Coatham Marsh on 1st October 1853. Geo. Mussell, however, informs me that fifty years ago it was by no means uncommon ; about the year 1857 fourteen were killed at one shot at the Teesmouth, and the professional fowlers frequently obtained from four to ten birds in a day. It is now very rare, and I have noted it in two instances only : on 28th September 1883, I saw a flock of eleven which passed me on Coatham sands, and on 1st October following I purchased a winged female from a fisherman who had caught it on the Tees sands.

COMMON SHELD-DUCK.Tadorna cornuta

Resident in limited numbers, its breeding quarters being confined to the Humber and Teesmouth districts. Large flocks of migrants observed in spring and autumn. Occasionally occurs inland. The Rev. John Graves appears to have first mentioned the Sheld-Duck in connection with this county, in his " History of Cleveland " (1808), where it is enumerated amongst the resident birds. Thomas Allis, in 1844, wrote : Tadorna vulpanser. Common Shieldrake Has been shot near Doncaster, and is of rare occurrence near York, though small flocks occasionally appear about Sutton-on-Derwent ; I at one time obtained about half-a-dozen from that locality ; W. Eddison remarks that the Shieldrake, Scaup, Shoveler, Wigeon, Pochard, Pintail, Golden-eye, Tufted Duck, Garganey, and Teal are all birds of passage, and are frequently shot as they rest on the large reservoirs on the wild moors near Huddersfield, particularly after stormy weather and adverse winds, or during long frosts, when keepers frequently shoot numbers of them, many of them rare and often beautiful specimens. A. Strick- land says this bird used to, and still occasionally does, breed in rabbit burrows a little north of the banks of the Humber, to which place they take their young as soon as they are able to travel ; a pair of young birds have been shot within the present month near Driffield ; it is occasionally shot near Thirsk.
It is with great satisfaction that I am able to claim this handsome Duck as still resident in the county, though in but limited numbers, and confined to the Humber and Tees estuaries. A few years ago it was subject to much persecution at Spurn, and also suffered through being sometimes un- intentionally caught in traps set in the rabbit burrows, the result being that it was almost banished as a nester from the district, but, owing to increased protection, it has now become re-established ; it also breeds in the higher reaches of the Humber, and is said to have nested near the junction of the Trent and Ouse in 1900.
Formerly it used to make use of burrows on the sand-hills between Redcar and the Teesmouth, on what is now the Cleveland Golf Club course, and one or two pairs occasionally breed in the reclamation walls by the side of the estuary, where they find a secure home amongst the slag with which the walls are constructed, the nest being most difficult to discover ; one was located in an iron water pipe fixed in a slag wall, and I knew of one in the year 1883 with fifteen eggs, eleven of which were successfully hatched. In addition to the Tees estuary, a pair sometimes resort to the sandhills between Redcar and Marske, the latest instance of which I am aware being in 1902 ; the old Duck brought her young brood down to the sea when they were a few days old, and five of them were captured on the rocks near Redcar. A pair has been observed in the breeding season on the sea- banks at Cattersty, near Skinningrove, where there is every reason to believe a nest was established.
A considerable accession to the numbers of the resident birds takes place in autumn, being composed of immigranls from more northern latitudes, many of which remain in the Tees estuary throughout the winter ; at this period the bird occurs sparingly at most of the Yorkshire coast stations, and also in localities remote from the seaboard, being found on the rivers of the West Riding and the sheets of water on the high moorlands ; it has also been noted in Wensleydale, Teesdale, and Ryedale ; not infrequently near Sutton-on- Derwent and East Cottingwith, Beverley, and other portions of the East and North Ridings.
In early spring a migration northward is observed, large flocks being then seen on the coast and in the estuaries ; in the Fourth Migration Report is an entry to the effect that, on I3th January 1882, a flock of three hundred was reported from the Tees Light Vessel, and I have frequently noticed parties of from thirty to upwards of a hundred individuals at the Teesmouth, which arrive in April, remain for several weeks, and then leave for their northern breeding quarters. The Sheld-Duck is included in the list of victims killed by flying against the Light ho*use at Spurn. Of local names, Shell, Skell or Skell-Duck are in general use ; and Sly or Burrough (? Burrow) -Duck were used by Tunstall (p. 99). [RUDDY SHELD-DUCK (Tadorna casarca, L.). The only instance of the occurrence in Yorkshire of this southern species is that mentioned in the " Handbook of Vertebrate Fauna of Yorkshire," p. 55, as " killed at Cottingham some years ago, and seen by Mr. H. B. Hewetson " ; but the circumstances connected with this record are of so dubious a nature, that no reliance is to be placed on them.

GADWALL. Anas strepera

Winter visitant, of rare occurrence. This species nests in northern and central Europe, migrating in winter to Asia and Africa. The first mention of it in Yorkshire is in Denny's Leeds Catalogue, 1840, where it is stated that one occurred at Swillington, near Leeds. Thomas Allis, 1844, wrote : Tadorna strepera. Gadwall Often bought, according to F. O. Morris, in Doncaster Market ; query are they Yorkshire birds ? Hugh Reid of Doncaster says a pair were shot near there in the spring of this year, and are now in his possession ; this does not appear like its being common there ; it is quite a rare bird near York, but it is sometimes met with ; has been obtained at Swillington, near Leeds, but is rare in that part. Arthur Strickland says " Notwithstanding the close attention to the Duck tribe, I have never met with an instance of this species being killed in this county."
The Gadwall is but a casual visitant in winter, having occurred on the following occasions : At Swillington, prior to 1840, as mentioned above. Mr. W. Backhouse had a specimen, on i8th February 1843, from the Teesmouth (Zool. 1846, p. 1263). In the spring of 1844 a pair was obtained at Doncaster (see Allis, above). On the Humber, a pair was killed on loth March 1851 (Morris, " Brit. Birds "). In the winter of 1856-57, an example was captured on the Hornby Castle Decoy. In Matthewman's Selby List (1858), one is mentioned. Mr. Fred Boyes, writing to the Zoologist (1871, p. 2525), says a fine drake was shot on 3ist January 1871, at Skerne, near Driffield, and passed into the possession of Mr. F. Hoare of Tranby Park. At Helpholme, in Holderness, a male was reported in 1876. A party of four females was seen near York, one being killed on I5th December 1880, as recorded by Mr. T. M. Lambert in the Field (i5th January 1881). Near Beverley, a pair, the female containing eggs the size of peas, occurred on the river Hull (N. F. Dobree, Nat. 1882, p. 185).
A male and female in the Hull Museum are believed to be of local origin the former from the Scorborough col- lection, while the latter was killed on the Humber in December 1885. At Lowthorpe, one was taken in the winter of 1899. A female example, in the York Museum, was killed at East Cottingwith in February 1892 (J. Backhouse, op. cit. 1892, p, 116). And lastly, in October 1896, three were obtained by a punt-shooter at the Teesmouth ; all of which I afterwards saw in the hands of Geo. Mussell of Middlesbrough. At Thirkleby Park, the residence of Sir Ralph Payne- Gallwey, several young birds have been hatched, from eggs sent by Lord Walsingham, and kept in a semi-wild state.

RED-CRESTED POCHARD. Netta rufina (Pallas)

Accidental visitant from south and east Europe and north Africa, of extremely rare occurrence. This duck nests in the southe^n and eastern portions of Continental Europe and north Africa, migrating in winter to India and China. Its claim to rank as a Yorkshire bird rests on the occurrence of one example only, a male in good plumage, which was killed off a pond on Coatham Marshes on 20th January 1900. I saw the specimen soon after it was procured and purchased it from the shooter (Zool. 1900, p. 483 ; and Nat. 1900, pp. 34> 322).
Mr. T. Stephenson states (MS. 1880), that " J. Kitching [of Whitby] says this has been shot at Redcar " ; but I am unable to trace any record previous to that mentioned above.

HARLEQUIN DUCK. Cosmonetta histrionica

"Accidental visitant from Northern Europe, Asia, and America, of extremely rare occurrence. The Harlequin Duck, which is a circumpolar species, is only an accidental visitant to this country. Thomas Allis, 1844, wrote : Clangula histrionica. Harlequin Duck. Hugh Reid says "A female of this species was shot in the river Don a little above Doncaster, by the late Mr. Cartmell, and was sold by me to Mr. N. E. Strickland." A. Strickland has never met with it in this country.
The first Yorkshire specimen is that mentioned by Allis, though Mr. J. H. Gurney (" Rambles of a Naturalist," p. 263), considers it of doubtful authenticity. A young male, now in the collection of Mr. J. Whitaker of Rainworth Lodge, was purchased by him from the late Alfred Roberts of Scarborough, who procured it about 1862, at Filey, from some fishermen who informed him they had found it washed up on the beach (Zool. 1878, p. 135).

SMEW. Mergus albellus

Winter visitant, of uncommon occurence. Is reported both on the coast and on inland waters, chiefly in immature plumage, the adult being extremely rare. Willughby's " Ornithology " contains the earliest known Yorkshire reference to the Smew, where it is alluded to as " The White Nun. Albellus alter. Aldrov." " The female of this is also mistaken for a different kind, and called Mergus glacialis, which Mr. Johnson [of Brignall, near Greta Bridge] Englishes the Lough Diver." (Will. " Orn." 1678, p. 27.) Thomas Allis, 1844, wrote : Mergus albellus. Smew Several have been shot near Doncaster in hard winters ; it is rare near Leeds, but has been procured at Swil- lington in 1838, and also at Gledhow ; occasionally obtained near York, but the female and immutare male are much more frequent than the full plumaged male.
The Smew is not an abundant species ; as a winter visitant it is met with sparingly at the coast and on inland waters, females or males in immature plumage being more often reported than old birds, though during severe winters and in stormy weather adults of both sexes are occasionally captured. This bird is, perhaps, more frequently noted on fresh water than on the tidal portions ; the river Hull in the neighbour- hood of Beverley, and the Derwent near Cottingwith, Escrick, and Sutton, being favoured by its visits, which, as a rule, take place late in the season, in December, January, and February ; Mr. F. Bo yes procured an adult female near Beverley, and he has seen four mature males killed near that place. It occurs rarely in the estuary of the Humber, and has been noted at Bridlington, Filey, Scarborough, and Whitby. At the Teesmouth it was frequent about forty or fifty years ago, but there are only three or four instances of its occurrence in Cleveland communicated during the past twenty years, one being a mature male taken on a pond at Skelton in the winter of 1900.
Like its congeners, the Goosander and Merganser, it follows the course of the large rivers, and several have been killed on the Tees in the vicinity of Yarm, while on other streams and sheets of fresh water odd examples are reported from time to time. The late Rev. J. W. Chaloner shot a male and female on the Wharfe at Newton Kyme, on igth January 1892, at the same place where he had killed a male exactly sixty years before ; on the river Nidd at Ribston three were seen and one obtained, in January 1893 ; while it has been observed near Doncaster, Barnsley, Wakefield, Halifax, Leeds, York, Malton, and other places in this county, the particulars of which it is not necessary to recapitulate.
The Smew is not now sufficiently common to be known by any vernacular names, but it was called White Nun by Willughby, and Lough Diver by Ralph Johnson of Brignall, in 1678.

PALLAS'S SAND GROUSE. Syrrhaptes paradoxus

Accidental visitant from the Asiatic Steppes, of extremely rare and irregular occurrence. This singular looking bird, which is a resident of Chinese Tartary, is an accidental wanderer to the British Isles, its first appearance in Yorkshire taking place during the year 1863, when a remarkable visitation was recorded. The facts, so far as they concern this county, are to be found in the Zoologist for 1863 (pp. 8688-89, 8722-24, and 1865, p. 9563), and a careful computation of the records made by Mr. W. Eagle Clarke resulted in his being able to state (" Hand- book of Yorkshire Vertebrata," p. 61), that at least eighty birds had been seen, and twenty-four procured. Since the publication of the " Handbook," however, four other examples of the 1863 visitation have been discovered : one by Mr. P. Loten of Easington, who remembers having it to preserve, but cannot give any further particulars ; and three specimens in the York Blue Coat Boys' School (J. Backhouse, Nat. 1886, p. 308), two of which were obtained at Stockton-on-the- Forest, and one near Keighley, thus bringing the number of Yorkshire examples, taken in 1863, up to twenty-eight.
Since that date there is no evidence of any other occurrence of the species in this county until 1876, in which year several parties were noted on the Continent, and, at the latter end of August, I saw three on the sands near the Teesmouth. They were very wild, not permitting an approach nearer than a hundred yards, at which distance I distinctly identified them through a telescope. A shooter in the locality informed me he had followed the same three birds for a whole day, but in vain.
Exactly a quarter of a century after the first great incursion of Sand Grouse, i.e., in May 1888, there occurred another, but on a much more extensive scale, assuming the proportions of an " irruption," which excited the greatest interest in ornithological circles. The arrival of the vanguard of this great host appears to have taken place simultaneously on the whole length of the Yorkshire seaboard, though, so far as I can ascertain, the first example was obtained in the north. The earliest comers, a party of six, were noticed at the Tees- mouth about the middle of May,* and these, probably, all perished, as several were shortly afterwards found dead on the neighbouring salt marshes ; a tail and foot of one were brought to me on I2th June. On 22nd May a female specimen, water-sodden, but otherwise in good condition, was picked up on the sands, and about the same date another * I was absent from home in May, and on my return at the end of the month, was informed of the advent of these birds " early in May," but subsequent information fixes the date about the I5th or 1 6th of the month. was washed up by the tide. On yth June five (one male and four females) were shot near Marske, in mistake for Golden Plover, from a flock of thirty or forty ; these I purchased shortly afterwards. At intervals during the summer months small flights were seen, some of which came off the sea, and on I3th November a pair was killed at Kirkleatham. At Ormesby a flock of twenty was seen on loth June ; at the end of May one was fotmd under the telegraph wires at Battersby ; near Guisborough Mr. (now Sir) A. E. Pease caught one in a ditch, on 23rd October ; at Allerton, near Pickering, ten or twelve were noted early in June, and near Masham two flocks, of seven and fourteen respectively, were reported by the late J. Carter. In the Whitby district a male and female were obtained from a flock of twenty at Carr Hill, on 28th May, and six others were procured from a large flight in June, whilst at Kettleness a female was picked up below the telegraph wires. At, or near, Scarborough, on i6th May, a flock of twenty-five was reported, out of which a pair was shot ; a male and female were killed from a flock of forty at Burniston on the 24th ; two flocks, comprising eight and twenty individuals respectively, were seen on 28th May, and near Slingsby six were noted on gth June.
In the East Riding Mr. D. Brown of Filey had thirty- two specimens sent for preservation, all of which were killed in that neighbourhood. At Flamborough the first comer was reported on i8th May, fifty or sixty more on the 24th, and several other flocks of smaller numbers were observed or recorded by Mr. M. Bailey, who states that an individual was found dead on the beach, and another in a field, whilst up to nth October many were taken to him to be preserved. At Mappleton, near Hornsea, on 20th May, three were killed from a flock of sixteen ; on June yth a party of fifty was noted ; on the 8th one of twenty-three, with others later, and between 28th June and 5th July fresh arrivals, coming from seaward, took place. At Withernsea a small flock was seen, and a female example secured, and on igth November two males were killed at Hollym from a flock of about forty in number. The famous promontory of Spurn, as might be expected, was not neglected : on i8th May Mr. P. Loten and his father noticed four birds coming in from the direction of the sea, five more being observed by the light-keeper on the same date ; twenty others were noted at Welwick, and various small flights occurred in different parts of the promontory from then until the 3ist May, when the late J. Cordeaux estimated the numbers seen at seventy ; seven others were shot and one " telegraphed." On ist June four more were killed, others being recorded from time to time until the end of the month.
In the Beverley district fourteen were brought in by a farmer and eight by another man ; at least fifty pairs were in the neighbourhood in July, and a large flock was noted between that place and Driffield in June. Near Market Weighton two were obtained from a party of thirty in June ; the Rev. E. Maule Cole reported two at Wetwang on 6th September, and a pair in the Hull Museum was killed on 2gth May, near Etton. On the open land between Kilham and Burton Agnes a large number was observed by Mr. W. H. St. Quintin for some weeks ; he gave strict orders for their protection, but early in August they were reduced from forty-two to twenty-two birds, being then in heavy moult. Several other smaller parties were noticed flying about the district, but nothing had been seen of them at Lowthorpe since August, and it was presumed they had departed.
In West Yorkshire Mr. W. Eagle Clarke received the earliest notice of the Sand Grouse on iyth May, when one was brought to him which had been captured the previous day in Dewsbury Road, near Leeds ; two days later a party of twenty was seen near Ardsley Reservoir ; on the 24th a specimen was " telegraphed " at Newt on-le- Clay, and eight others noted at the same place. Mr. Riley Fortune saw four at Beaver Dam on the 26th ; near Goldsborough a flock of fifteen was noted on the 30 th ; two were procured, from a party of five, at Darley in Upper Nidderdale, by Mr. Smorfitt, and others were reported in several localities in the Western Ainsty. The Rev. E. P. Knubley recorded a flight of twenty at Staveley ; two were killed at Staveley Bridge ; one was noted near Huddersfield, and a pair in the Settle district. On I4th February in the following year (1889), a female example was shot, from a flock of seven, by a fisherman at the South Gare Breakwater ; the next day another was killed at the same place, and a male bird was picked up dead, whilst in January a female was found dead near York. It is an ascertained fa*ct that some of these interesting birds nested in East Yorkshire, two clutches, consisting of two eggs each, being reported near Beverley. The first was discovered on I5th June 1888, on Newbald Lodge Farm, by Joseph Long, rabbit er, whilst the other was found by the late Johnson Swailes, laid on the bare ground at High Gardham, on 5th July in the same year. These specimens are now in the possession of Mr. T. Audas.* The individuals examined in winter or in the year following their arrival were much darker in plumage than those first obtained ; two males killed on 2ist December 1888, at Hollym, in Holderness, scaled eleven and twelve ounces respectively. The heaviest specimen I weighed was ten ounces.
The crops of those killed generally contained seeds of weeds, although two specimens, taken near Redcar in winter, had been feeding on wheat and buckwheat, as also had some other examples that were killed near Spurn, where a grain- laden vessel had been wrecked. It is quite possible, indeed almost certain, that many^of the flights were recorded more than once, by different observers, but again there can be no doubt that fresh arrivals continued to cross the sea, and this renders the task of estimating the numbers chronicled extremely difficult. I have, however, after making due allowances for the circumstances mentioned, arrived at the following figures, which are taken to be the lowest possible estimate of the numbers seen and obtained in the three Ridings, according to the information available.

RED GROUSE. Lagopus scoticus

Resident, abundant on all the high moors, and in severe winters occurs as a straggler in lowland localities. Although mentioned in Whitaker's " Craven " (1812), as occurring in the Skiptoa Castle accounts (1604-1639) of Lord Clifford, last Earl of Cumberland, the first published reference to this bird in Yorkshire was, so far as is ascertained, made by Willughby, who alluded to it as " Red Game, called in some places the Gorcock and Moorcock. It is frequent in the high mountains of Derbyshire, Yorkshire," etc. (Will. " Orn." 1678, p. 177). Another early allusion to the species is in a letter dated I2th September 1724, written by Sir Hans Sloane to Dr. Richardson of North Bierley, and thanking him for his " present of potted Moorfowl." (" Dr. Richardson's Cor- respondence," p. 212.) Marmaduke Tunstall also, in 1784, gave a long dissertation on the Grouse in the Teesdale district, under the name of " Red Cock." He stated that " This singular species of moor game appears to me to be confined to the British Isles This fine species, like the Black, has been much diminished these late years to my knowledge ; have a pretty large tract of moor myself of some miles extent, where I have known 25 or 30 brace killed of a day, but are now miserably fallen off, tho' carefully watched ; and in the same state are most of the moors in the North, owing to the same causes as the destruction of the Black Cock. Some even say, the Act of Parliament, postponing the time for the commencement of shooting, has done more harm than good, as, when the young ones were killed so early, the old birds frequently had a second brood, which escaped, yet this appears to me rather prob- lematical. When the early shooting was not forbid, they began in June, when many broods were very small, and as many were worried by dogs as killed by the gun.
One great cause of their decrease, as well as the Black Game, is the population and enclosing of wild lands and moors. ... I have been told, (and this from good authority), even his Majesty had not tasted any till about ten years since, which, I believe, came from my moors. I sent a fine pair, well set up, to Linnaeus, in the year 1773, which he admired much, and acknowledged in a very polite letter One, of a much superior size than usual, was killed near Richmond, in York- shire, in Oct. 1877, which weighed 25 ounces. Tho' very shy in mild winters, yet in severe weather they will come down to the vales in the neighbourhood of the moors, and feed with the common fowls, and sit on the ling coverings of the poor cottages, sometimes in great numbers, the poor peasants not regarding them, or meddling with them. Was told by a neighbouring apothecary, who goes into the fells to visit his poor patients in this weather, that he has seen the whole roof of the house covered with moor game, sitting so quiet that they appeared at first like domestic poultry. . . . Excuse this digression, as I am in the country of this fine bird, the species of which I see daily expiring under my eyes, to my great regret, even in my own property, notwithstanding what care I can take of them." (Fox's " Synopsis," p. 79-80.) Thomas Allis, in 1844, wrote : Laaopus scoticus. Red Grouse Common on all the high moors. The Grouse may be termed the typical bird of Yorkshire, as in no other English County is it so widely distributed or so abundant ; it is found without exception throughout the broad belt of moorland extending from the Derbyshire border in the south to the extreme north, including Teesdale, and the moors between the Cleveland and Hambleton Hills and the coast line as far south as Scarborough ; nor is it confined to the high moors, as on the low ground where heather is common it is also to be met with in abundance ; in fact, wherever there is a wide expanse of heather these birds will be found more or less numerous. Mr. F. Boyes observes that within his recollection heather was abundant in the Market Weighton, Cliffe, and Holme-on-Spalding-Moor districts of the East Riding, now under cultivation, and he can remember the last Grouse being shot there. He is of opinion that they were introduced with the idea that they would thrive, but the experiment had proved to be a failure.
It is doubtful if Grouse migrate far from their own ground for any lengthened period ; the Rev. H. H. Slater informed Mr. Eagle Clarke, on the authority of his uncle, Mr. T. Horrocks of Eden Brows, Carlisle, that towards the end of October every year there is a migration of packs of Grouse from the Duke of Cleveland's moor* in Teesdale to Mr. Horrocks's moors at Alston in Cumberland, a distance of twenty miles, where they remain till the end of the season, and then return to their own country. A large proportion of these emigrants are hens, and are different in size and plumage, and readily discriminated from the Alston birds, being only two-thirds their size and weight, and the plumage more speckled and yellow (cf. Zool. 1895, p. 107). Grouse have been seen at Strensall, where a covey of eight or nine was flushed on 1 3th August 1881. They also occasionally migrate from their own ground to the neighbouring moors for food, but this chiefly occurs during the afternoon, as they seldom move about much during the day unless disturbed, and feed only once a day, viz., towards evening.
In severe winters, when there is a great depth of snow, birds are driven down to the cultivated valleys literally by the thousand, the moors being utterly deserted by them. So long as the snow is soft at the top they are able to form tunnels several feet in depth to get to their food ; when, however, a thaw is followed by rain and succeeded by a frost, the surface of the snow becomes glazed with ice, and they are unable to make a way through owing to the formation of their claws, which, admirably suited as they are for walking on soft snow, are not adapted for burrowing through its surface when frozen ; the result is that, forced by want of food, they leave the moor in immense packs and travel down to the low country where, as in 1886 and 1895, they feed on corn and turnip leaves in the fields, on shoots of the black- thorn, haws, and buds in the hedgerows, and wherever food of any description is to be found. In weather like this they may be seen perched in hundreds in the hedgerows and on the lower branches of trees. Large numbers have been observed on the sea beach in the Cleveland district, and on one occasion during a lengthened snowstorm a pack of several hundred birds passed over ; these, however, were only present when the tide was down, and as the water flowed they returned to the moors.
It is often found that in very mild, as well as in severe, winters a partial and temporary migration takes place, as the lower moors are sometimes full of birds that, it is known, do not belong to the ground, and that shift their quarters again later on ; frequently too a sheltered moor will attract a big stock of birds in wild rough weather, but the stay is only of a temporary nature. Birds also shift from the low grounds to the tops in fine weather, returning again if a change for the worse occurs. In the winter of 1878 several were obtained at Redcar, and in December of that year I passed within five yards of a hen Grouse feeding on a haw- thorn bush behind the sand-hills ; in the severe winter of 1879-80 Grouse were seen at Oswaldkirk, near York, and at Bridlington. In the storm of 1886, when heavy snow on 24th January was succeeded by a partial thaw, accompanied by rain, and then followed by frost, large packs of birds came down into the lowlands, and were noticed in lower Swaledale and Wensleydale, Arthington, Weeton, Leeds, and other places remote from their usual haunts, as many as five hundred being seen in one day ; numbers were killed by flying against the telegraph wires, others were shot by pot-hunters, or died of starvation, and many, doubtless, never returned to the moors.
In 1895 a state of weather similar to that in 1886 prevailed, and many Grouse appeared in the vicinity of Harrogate and lower Nidderdale. On the breaking up of the storm birds gradually work back to their original quarters, although many seek fresh ground, thereby providing a much needed change of blood, to the ultimate advantage of the supply on the moors. It has often followed that, despite the immense losses incurred during a severe storm, when dead Grouse may be picked up by the dozen in a short walk, the succeeding season has been fully up to, or above, the average, especially on the lower moors. It might reasonably be expected that, after a severe winter, the birds would be left in a weakly state, and the clutches of eggs would be smaller and the young broods weaker, but this is not the case ; possibly the whole of the weakly and diseased individuals, being unable to withstand the weather, succumb, thereby leaving a stronger and more vigorous breeding stock.
Grouse are seldom observed in the cultivated lowlands in mild winters, although during the season 1903-4 they were seen in scores on oat stubbles adjoining the moors in Wensley- dale, an event of rare occurrence ; probably the exceeding late harvest had something to do with this. It was most interesting to watch them feeding on the stocks, where they appeared to adopt the same method of stripping up the ears as they do in dealing with the young shoots of heather ; evidently they are exceedingly fond of corn, as they persistently frequented these oat stubbles when shooting was going on a few hundred yards away. The habits of Grouse are even yet imperfectly known, but, thanks to the keener observations of some of the more intelligent moorland keepers, fresh traits are constantly being discovered ; as is well known, they are very fond of grit, which is in fact a necessity to them, and until recently it was not generally known that they ate peat, but in north Yorkshire they have been observed to do so. In the mornings they eject a pasty mass of indigestible matter ; this was very conspicuous on the snow in the winter of 1895, and Mr. J. Ingleby of Eavestone kindly forwarded me samples, which were examined by Mr. Percy Grimshaw of the Royal Scottish Museum, who pronounced them to consist of pieces of grit and vegetable matter, leaves of plants and ling, formed into a pulp. Partridges eject substances of a similar nature. Grouse will freely perch on the stunted trees at the fringe of the moor, and they have constantly been observed late in the autumn and early winter perched in thorn bushes on a lowland moor in Wensleydale. In frosty weather they are often seen on the wall tops, and will remain there until an intruder gets quite close to them if driving, as they take but little notice of a passing cart ; yet a man walking across the moor will flush every bird within hundreds of yards. Tunstall refers to the habit of these birds perching on roofs of cottages ; in the great storms of 1886 and 1895 they were seen on the hawthorn hedges, and in January of the latter year Mr. M. A. Horsfall of Hornby Grange, Northallerton, shot a cock Grouse from the top of an oak tree. Many in the Bowes district were also observed sitting in trees.
Grouse are comparatively easy to rear by hand ; Mr. John Thwaite, Moorland Cottage, Hawes, informs me that in 1865 he had seventeen birds so tame that they would feed out of his hand and follow him wherever he went on the moors, walking as long as they could, then rising and flying to over- take him. He reared Grouse more or less every year from 1860 to 1870. One peculiarity of these birds is the extreme pugnacity of the cocks, which appear to be absolutely without fear, and will attack both dogs and men with the greatest impetuosity. In Yorkshire the coveys are found packed by the first week in August, and it is now the universal custom to drive early in the season on all the principal moors. It is still an unsettled question when shooting birds on the wing was first practised in England. In the time of James I. it was the custom to take game either by nets or with Hawks ; and in a memorandum made by Wilson of Broomhead, the antiquary of Broadfield, it is stated that the first person who shot Grouse on the wing on these moors was a member of his own family, who died in 1687, at the age of sixty-one (Hunter's " Hallamshire, S. Yorkshire," Vol. ii. p. 183). Yarrell (" British Birds," 1843, Vol. ii. p. 318) mentioned that Lord Strathmore's keeper on the Teesdale moors was matched to shoot forty brace on I2th August, and performed this feat with great ease, bag- ging forty- three brace by two o'clock. At eight o'clock in the morning, owing to fog, he had only killed three birds.
The following letter addressed to Wm. Lipscombe, Esq., of Beech Lawn, near Wakefield, gives probably the best account of the origin of Grouse driving. It is dated Cannon Hall, Barnsley, 28th November 1885, and is as follows : " Grouse driving first commenced on the low moor at Rayner Stones (now cultivated) about 1805. There were regular drives in 1841, but no butts. Three brace per gun for a drive was considered a good bag, and a bag of fifty brace in 1843 was considered a great day. Holes were dug on Ryshworth and Edwarde's moors in 1847. In August 1849, 448 Grouse were shot, which was considered the highest score up to that date. W. Spencer Stanhope." The late Henry Savile's keeper, George Sykes, has generally been credited with the first application of the system of Grouse driving ; he laid out the ground on several moors, High Force amongst them. There is no doubt that the system of driving and the great care and attention paid to preservation have enormously increased the stock of birds on the Yorkshire moors, and more are now bagged in one day than were previously killed during the whole season when shooting over dogs was in vogue. At High Force, in General Hall's time (1886), eight guns killed from I3th to lyth August 2,616 brace. In 1872, which was the record year for York- shire, some very heavy bags were made, and on 6th September, on Mr. R. H. Rimington-Wilson's moor at Broomhead, 1,313 brace were killed in one day by eleven guns driving, which was the largest number recorded that season ; in the same year 1,040 brace were stated to have been bagged by seven guns. Wemmergill was exceedingly prolific in game that season ; in six days a party averaging six guns killed 3,983^ brace, and during the season 17,074 birds, of which Sir Frederick Milbank claimed 5,668 ; the average total bag on this moor for twelve seasons was 4,133 brace, whilst the largest collective bag was made on 20th August 1872 1,035 brace to six guns, of which Sir Frederick shot 96 brace in one drive lasting twenty-three minutes, his total bag for that day amounting to 728 birds. A granite monument erected on Wemmergill moor commemorates this feat in Grouse shooting.
Lord Walsingham, on Bluberhouse, on 28th August 1872, had 842 birds, shooting in two batteries for twelve hours ; twenty drivers were employed, in two parties of ten each, ior sixteen drives, the guns used being a pair of breechloaders and a pair of muzzle loaders ; on the same moor in 1864 the largest bag was 85 birds over dogs. On 30th August 1888, his lordship killed 1,070 birds in twenty drives, using four breech loaders, and having two men loading.* On Mr. R. * First drive commenced at 5-12 a.m. No. of Birds to each Drive. No. of Minutes in each Drivt. 49 33 64 38 59 16 79 Il 7i 24 58 18 56 19 53 20 42 20 61 16 16 17 21 30 32 25 91 21 39 28 93 21 52 20 33 24 23 21 30 .. 20 Walking home . . 14 Concluding 7-30 p.m. 1036 Picked up . . . . 22 12 1070 From first shot to last, I4hrs. i8min. No. of cartridges fired, about 1,550, including 40 signal shots. Deducting the 14 killed walking home, and adding 22 + 12 picked up, the result is 1,056 killed in 449 minutes, or 2$ per minute in the actual time occupied in shooting in the 20 drives. Once three birds were killed at one shot, the only three in sight at the time, and thrice two birds were killed at one shot, each time intentionally.
H. Rimington- Wilson's moor, in the year 1904, a party of nine guns made a record bag of 1,374 brace on 24th August. On the Marquis of Ripon's moors near Studley Royal, Lord de Grey has killed 575 birds in one day, as one of a party of seven guns. In 1901, a Richmond game dealer sent away, during one week in August, 17,352 Grouse, the price ranging as low as 2/- per brace. Grouse pair in January or even earlier, generally com- mencing to nest in March or April ; the old cocks are most pugnacious, driving away the younger birds during the breeding season, and the old hen birds also drive off the younger hens from their vicinity, with the result that the nests suffer. Young vigorous Grouse usually have clutches of from seven to nine, whilst the older birds seldom lay more than five to seven eggs ; occasionally, but very rarely, nests are found to contain more than ten, although an instance is on record of one at Routh Head, Arkengarthdale, in 1885, with seventeen eggs, but in this case probably two birds used the same nest. On Lord Walsingham's moors a nest of four- teen eggs was found, all of which were hatched.
In severe weather nests have been noticed with the contents carefully covered with moss or heather, thus affording protec- tion from late spring frosts ; as eggs are generally found to be uncovered in normal conditions, it would appear that the birds have some instinctive foreboding of the approach of bad weather. When the moors are covered with snow, as occasionally happens during the nesting period, many nests must of necessity be lost and the eggs destroyed through being hidden from view by the covering of snow. In these circumstances the birds, being unable to find their nests, drop their eggs at odd places on the open moorland ; many were thus found in 1903. There is no doubt that fewer eggs are destroyed by the action of frost than is generally thought to be the case, as the surrounding heather affords a certain amount of protection. In the exceptionally good grouse year of 1872 snow was lying on the higher hills in North Yorkshire for a period of three days during the nesting time, yet the season was a record one. In the year 1903, when the late spring frosts took place, and the hills were covered with snow at the time the birds were busy nesting, it was feared that numbers of eggs would be spoilt by the frost, and on at least one large moor in North Yorkshire the keepers were instructed to destroy all the eggs found (under the mistaken impression that these would be frozen), with disastrous results, as the second clutches were small, and the birds late and not fit to shoot at the commencement of the season.

PHEASANT. Phasianus colchicus

Resident ; semi-domesticated, common, generally distributed. The first Yorkshire mention of the Pheasant is found in the account of the great banquet at Cawood, in 1466, given in honour of the enthronement of Archbishop Nevell. Included in the provision made were : " Fessauntes, 200." (Leland's " Collectanea.") In the Northumberland Household Book, begun in 1512, at Earl Percy's Yorkshire castles, " Fesauntes " were priced at " I2d." " for my Lordes owne Mees." The bird is also mentioned at the marriage feast of Sir John Neville's daughter at Che vet, near Wakefield, in 1526, and again at the Lammas Assizes in 1528, when Sir John was High Sheriff; his expenses including "12 ffesants i" Thomas Allis, 1844, wrote : Phasianus colchicus. Common Pheasant As common as shooters and poachers will allow them to be.
Allis's pithy remarks as to the status of this well-known game-bird are as true at the present day as they were in 1844, and it requires but little further notice here ; it is common where preserved, and generally distributed, except in the highest portions of the West and North Riding dales, and on the moorlands, though not altogether absent even in those places. The ring-necked variety (P. torquatus) has been so largely introduced of late years that the old-fashioned race (P. colchicus) is now seldom found pure, the majority of the birds exhibiting more or less signs of hybridity with the former species.
The late John Cordeaux stated (" Birds of Humber District," p. 79), that he had known several instances of Pheasants flying across the estuary, four miles, on to the Lincolnshire coast, though observers in Spurn neighbourhood are sceptical on this point, and some ornithologists are doubtful whether this bird can fly such a distance. At Redcar Pheasants occasionally come down to the sands, and so recently as October 1901, a hen bird flew over my head down to low water mark and along the beach.
Many curious nesting sites and incidents connected with nidification might be mentioned, but one or two will suffice. A deserted nest of a Ring-Dove was selected by a Pheasant in which to lay fifteen eggs at North Stainley, near Ripon (Nat. 1894, p. 174) ; and f am enabled to give an illustration of a nest in a squirrel's drey, 22 feet from the ground, at Plumpton. An instance of a Tawny Owl and a Pheasant occupying the same nest, at the foot of a spruce fir tree at Hambleton, is recorded in the Field, 2ist May 1898 f in the same journal for nth October 1902, is an account of a hen Pheasant being flushed by Partridge shooters in September from a nest of nine eggs at Mulgrave ; and on the adjoining estate of Crinkle, Mr. W. Cook, keeper, told me he had seen a cock Pheasant brooding ten eggs.
White and pied varieties are common ; rufous, cream or fawn-coloured, and mottled specimens have occurred ; whilst an example of a hen assuming the plumage of the male, obtained in North Yorkshire, is in the possession of Mr. George Parkin of Wakefield (Nat. 1887, p. 45), and others have come under the observation of Mr. F. Boyes. Two instances of hybridity between Black-game and Pheasant are dealt with under the former species, p. 509.

COMMON QUAIL.Coturnix communis

Summer visitant, breeding in limited numbers in Holderness and in the Western Ainsty. Has been met with occasionally in winter. Less abundant than formerly. The first mention of the Quail is in the provision at the great Cawood banquet in 1466, given in honour of Arch- bishop Nevell, thus : " Quayles a hundred dozen " (Leland's Collectanea). It also figures in the Northumberland House- hold Book in 1512, at Earl Percy's castles of Wressill and Lekinfield, "Quayles" being amongst the birds to be provided " for my Lordes owne Mees at Pryncipall Feestes and at ijd. a pece at moste." Thomas Allis, in 1844, wrote : Coturnix dactylisonans. The Quail Is occasionally heard about Sheffield ; formerly it bred in the vicinity of Halifax, and occasionally does near York, though much less common than formerly ; rare near Leeds, but occasionally met with at Scarcroft, Killingbeck, and Chur- well. W. Eddison says " On some occasions I have shot a number of them in the cornfields, near Huddersfield, discerning them by their peculiar call in the springtime, about when the rye begins to shoot." Dr. Farrar observes " This species was very uncertain in its appearance, but far more abundant in 1832 than, to my observation, either at an earlier or later period." A. Strickland remarks " From accounts I have heard we might suppose Quails used to be numerous in this district, as I have been told they used to be taken in nets here formerly, but they are now seldom met with ; a few may be heard at times among the corn in summer, or met with in turnips in winter.
The Quail is a summer visitant, arriving in May with the latest of the spring migrants, and was formerly a fairly abundant species ; Arthur Strickland informed the naturalists of his day that it used to be taken in nets near Bridlington (cf. Allis's Report), and in other parts of the East Riding it was considered not uncommon. It still nests irregularly and in limited numbers in several localities, in some years being common, noticeably so in 1832 and 1870, while in other seasons it is scarce, though, compared with its former status, it is gradually decreasing, due in part to high cultivation and the discontinuance of rye growing. Mr. F. Boyes flushed a bird, at two or three feet distance, from a nest containing eleven eggs, in July 1870, on a railway embankment in East Yorkshire ; the nest was in a slight hollow and composed of a few dead grasses, with the eggs laid slovenly, some on top of others. George Fetch, late keeper to Mr. St. Quintin of Scampston, used constantly to hear Quails calling, and they still occasionally nest near there, and are heard in the young corn. The late E. Tindall of Knap ton also reported it as nesting in 1876.
In the West Riding it has bred in several districts of the Western Ainsty, and did so regularly at Newton Kyme up to 1830, and at Boston Spa until 1881. Near Brimham Rocks two nests were taken in July 1865 and 1870 (Field, 2ist August 1880 ; and Zool. 1880, p. 356). Mr. Leonard Gaunt has an egg found on Brayshaw Hill, and has seen several nests at various times in Leeds neighbourhood ; the species also breeds occasionally in Sheffield district. Other localities from which the nest has been reported are Ackworth, in 1891 and 1893 ; Balne Moor, near Snaith, in 1880 ; Selby ; Holdsworth in Ovenden (nest and fourteen eggs) ; Keighley in 1879 (an egg being now in the Museum of that town, W. Eagle Clarke, Field, 2ist August 1880) ; and Halifax, in 1878.
In the North Riding Marmaduke Tunstall, in 1784, wrote of it as being found at Wycliffe-on-Tees, but not frequent (Tunst. MS. p. 82) ; the late Canon Atkinson recorded two broods at Moorsholm-in-Cleveland in 1859 5 several nests have been found near Loftus-in-Cleveland between 1875 and 1890 ; the late Afred Roberts stated that he had had young from near Scarborough, whilst Canon Atkinson used repeatedly to hear the birds calling at Danby, where a pair once came into the Vicarage garden (" Moorland Parish," p. 327). Mr. J. Braim had eggs in his collection, taken near Whitby in the " fifties," and the bird has been known to breed near there on several occasions since then, the last instance of which I am aware being in 1896 ; an egg in my possession was one of a deserted clutch of eleven found at Glaisdale in August of that year. At Easby- in-Cleveland I heard birds calling in June 1895 ; a young one was seen at Kirkleatham in 1896, and at Carperby, in Wensleydale, a nest containing ten eggs was discovered in 1884.
On both the spring and autumn passage the Quail has occurred at various coast stations, while during Partridge shooting in September it has been met with repeatedly, the reported and communicated instances of which are too numerous for recapitulation. It has also occasionally been killed in mid-winter ; one at Nafferton, in December 1851, is mentioned by the Rev. F. O. Morris ; Mr. F. Boyes had one brought to him on 28th December 1878 ; and on 20th February 1866, one was obtained near Beverley (Zool. 1867, p. 540).
As on various occasions Quails have been turned down for experimental purposes by estate owners in Yorkshire, it is possible some of the records may be attributable to imported birds.

GREAT BUSTARD. Otis tarda

Accidental visitant from Continental Europe, of extremely rare occurrence ; formerly resident in great numbers on the Wolds of eastern Yorkshire, when in their virgin state as undulating barren sheepwalks. The only reference of early date to this bird is in the Earl of Northumberland's regulations, in 1512, for his " Castles of Wressill and Lekinfield in Yorkshire " ; included among the articles for principal feasts we find the following : " Item, Bustardes for my Lordes owne Mees at Pryncipall Feestes Ande noon outher tyme Except my Lordes comaund- ment be otherwyse " ; but no price is attached, as in the case of other birds mentioned.
It is much to be regretted that almost all the records of the existence in Yorkshire of so fine and conspicuous a bird should date subsequently to its extinction, the precise period of which is uncertain ; although there is reason to believe that the last bird was seen at Foxholes, near Scarborough, about the year 1835, and it is somewhat remarkable that there should be only two published contemporary allusions to its presence in the county in the eighteenth century. These were by Marmaduke Tunstall, and a writer in the " Sporting Magazine " ; probably this want of record may be explained by the very abundance of the species. Even the records that exist are derived from memory, or based upon hearsay statements.
The materials available for treating of the past history of Yorkshire Bustards consist of Marmaduke Tunstall's MS., dated 1784, contained in Fox's "Synopsis," p. 82 ; a paragraph, dated October 1792, in the " Sporting Magazine " ; Arthur Strickland's account given in Allis's Report on the Birds of Yorkshire, in 1844 ; notes by Henry Woodall of North Dalton, and E. H. Hebden of Scarborough, contributed to Morris's " British Birds " in 1854 ; articles in the Zoologist for 1870 (pp. 2063, 2102, 2103) ; a letter from Sir Charles Anderson of Lea, to the late John Cordeaux, dated I4th December 1874 ; letters to Mr. W. Eagle Clarke from Mr. Thomas Boynton, late of Ulrome, now of Bridlington, Sir C. W. Strickland of Hildenley, Professor Newton, and Mr. J. W. Woodall of Scarborough ; letters from Mr. W. H. St. Quintin of Scampston, and the Rev. G. D. Armitage, written in March 1902, and articles in the Field of 6th and 27th March 1897, by Mr. J. E. Harting and Mr. St. Quintin. From such of these materials as have been published, the numerous statements given in books have been compiled. Of the early writers mentioned, the first to comment on the great Bustard is the celebrated Yorkshire ornithologist, Marmaduke Tunstall, F.R.S., of Wycliffe-on-Tees, who remarked : " Some still remain on our Yorkshire Wolds. An acquaintance of mine pursued for three days the last summer, without effect, a brood [sic] of seven ; and one of twelve, at least, he had heard of." The only other eighteenth century record is contained in the " Sporting Magazine," under date October 1792, thus : " Within these few days a Bustard was killed at Rudstone-on- the- Wolds, by a gamekeeper belonging to Sir Griffith Boynton.. The width of the wings was seven feet over."
Mr. W. H. St. Quintin also communicates an interesting- item of information, taken from an old estate book in his possession, concerning the price paid by his ancestor, Sir William St. Quintin of Wansford, in the year 1760, to his gamekeeper, Wm. Wiley, for Bustards ; these birds being valued at two shillings.
At the northern extremity of the Wolds, the chief and last haunt of the Great Bustard seems to have been about. Flixton, Hunmanby, and Reighton. It was here as she informed Mr. Boynton that the late Miss Charlotte Rickaby of Bridlington Quay, when a girl, counted fifteen Great Bustards in a field, while riding with her father from Bridling- ton Quay to Flamborough, early in the last century ; and Sir C. W. Strickland wrote that his grandfather, Sir William Strickland, used to say he could remember a flock of about five and twenty of them on the Wolds between Reighton and Bridlington, and that the last of them was eaten at Boynton. A farmer living at Reighton in 1830 told Sir Charles Anderson that when he was a boy flocks of eight and ten together were found all over the district. Mr. W. H. St Quintin, writing on 4th March 1902, says : " In the churchyard at Lowthorpe is buried Agars, for some time keeper in our family. Lord. Lilford had a manuscript, from which he has quoted to me,, to the effect that Agars once killed eleven Great Bustards at. a shot .... this happened on the Wolds."
This is the same incident as is referred to by Mr. J. E- Harting, in an article on " The former occurrence of the Bustard in Yorkshire," in the Field, 6th March 1897. Mr. Harting states that the precise details have only recently come to light in a letter written by the grandson of the keeper who shot the birds. For this information we are indebted to Lieut. Gen. A. C. Cooke, who writes as follows : " On looking over some old documents belonging to a deceased relative, I came across the following letter, which may, I think, be of interest to sportsmen and naturalists. It gives an account of eleven Great Bustards killed at one shot on the Wolds of Yorkshire, near Sledmere, in 1808, by one Agars, gamekeeper to Mr. St. Quintin of that day. The writer of the letter was Agar's grandson, whom I knew very well, as he was watcher to the Foston Trout Club, in whose water I used to fish. The father of the writer (and son of the shooter) I also knew well. He had been gamekeeper to Col. St. Quintin, and was a fine specimen of the old English keeper, of good presence and courteous manners. The account now transcribed, and given below, was written by his son at his dictation in 1864, and, as he states that he was twelve or thirteen years old when the occurrence in question took place (1808), he must have been then sixty-eight or sixty-nine. Col. St. Quintin's property adjoins the Foston Club water. When the occurrence took place the Wolds had not been ploughed up, and consisted of uninclosed rolling downs, the natural haunt of Bustards, which bred there, and of which some were doubtless killed every year, for it seems that the equipment of a Wolds keeper included a stalking horse, a coat made of horse hide with the hair outside, and a blunderbuss. This particular occurrence had evidently im- pressed itself on the old man's mind, on account of the unusual number of Bustards killed in one day ; and the fact of his remembering the subsequent destination of the dead birds shows that his memory was tolerably accurate. Of his reliability I have no doubt. Possibly some old members of the Foston Club will remember him ; Mr. Woodhall, who was for many years secretary, may possibly do so. The following is his letter : " Foston, Cross Keys, March ig, 1864.
" Rev. Sir, Father wishes me to give you all the par- ticulars in his power respecting the number of Bustards killed by my grandfather at one shot. It being so long a time since, he is not able to give you a correct account of all the particulars you name in your letter ; he is not positive (in) what year (it happened), but he thinks it was in 1808, and that it was in the month of March. He cannot remember how many Bustards there were at the time grandfather fired ; he thinks seven fell to the gun and four (were) got afterwards which were wounded. He does not know the weight of the gun (used), but it was more than the strongest man could hold without a rest. He cannot say how much powder or shot was used in the charge, neither the size of the shot, but grandfather generally used No. 3. He does not know the distance he was from the birds, but thinks about thirty yards. The horse was a big bay coaching mare properly trained as a stalking horse ; his (own) coat was generally made of a bay horse-skin tanned with the hair on. It was near Borrow where they were killed, between Langtoft and Sledmere ; it was before the Wolds was enclosed, and before it was plowed out. Grandfather lived with Wm. Thos. St. Quintin, Esq., at the time. He believes six Bustards were given away in the neighbourhood and the rest sent to Mrs. St. Quintin, then in London. It being so long a time since, and father being only twelve or thirteen years old, he is not able to give you a correcter account. I am, Rev. Sir, your obedient humble servant, Robert Agars.
" To the Rev. R. B. Cooke." Following upon this interesting information, which was not in the possession of Mr. W. Eagle Clarke when writing the bird portion of his and Mr. Roebuck's " Handbook of Yorkshire Vertebrata," is a short communication from Mr. St. Quintin (Field, 27th March 1897), as follows : " May I correct a trifling inaccuracy which has crept into Mr. Harting's letter in the Field of the 6th inst, on the subject of a remarkable shot at Bustards in East Yorkshire about the year 1808 ? The ground upon which the incident in question occurred, though only some six miles distant, never belonged to my family, but at the date named was part of the Sledmere estate, and is now the property of Sir Tatton Sykes. It is high wold land, and, no doubt, at the time was open sheep walk. Agars, the keeper who fired the shot, and more than one other of the same family, was (as Mr. Harting has stated) in the employ of my grandfather ; but it seems that in those days, when game was not plentiful on the Wolds, or held in much account, considerable liberty was allowed to those who cared to go even beyond the boundaries of their own manors in search of such precarious or arduous sport as the pursuit of Wild Geese, Dotterel, and, as in this case, Great Bustards."
Mr. Hebden's information was to the effect that to the best of his recollection it would be about the year 1811 that he first saw the five large Bustards on Flixton Wold, that number continuing there at least two years, when two were killed ; the remaining three still continued on the same Wold for at least one year, when two disappeared, leaving the solitary bird, which, after a length of time, was severely wounded by Sir William Strickland's keeper, and found some days afterwards in a turnip field near Hunmanby, by the huntsman of the Scarborough Harriers, and secured. Mr. A. S. Bell adds that this bird was brought to Scarborough and cooked at a supper given by the hunt (Zool. 1870, p. 2063). Professor Newton of Magdalene College, Cambridge, kindly communicates the following additional evidence : " Rather more than a year ago the Master of Trinity College, Dr. W. H. Thompson, told me that when he was about six or seven years old he was living at York with his grandfather, to whom a Bustard was sent as a present. Dr. Thompson remembered going into the servants' hall or the kitchen to look at it, and some one was holding it up by the legs. He thought it weighed about eight or nine pounds, and it would therefore be a hen bird. He supposed it had been procured on the Yorkshire Wolds where he had heard Bustards once existed, and that it was eaten in the house, but he had no recollection of having tasted it, or indeed, anything more about it. Dr. Thompson graduated B.A. in 1832, and, sup- posing him to have been then twenty-two years of age, the event must have happened about 1816 or 1817." Mr. J. W. Woodall states that about 1825 a Bustard was run over and killed between Folkton and Hunmanby. Sir Charles Anderson has a stuffed specimen, taken in 1825 at Hunmanby, and in 1828, while shoofing on Mr. Osbaldeston's property at that place, he saw a fine cock. This would, no doubt, be the identical bird seen in Grindale Field by Mr. John Milner of Middledale, Kilham, he thinks, about the year 1828, for as he informed Mr. Boynton it was some time after he left school in 1825, and at the time he was riding with his father, who died in 1830. Mr. Boynton was also told by the late Mrs. Metcalfe of Bridlington Quay that she and her husband (who was Vicar of Reighton, and died in 1834), were invited to dine at Boynton Hall with Sir Wm. Strickland, the principal dish being a Great Bustard, which Sir William, in his note of invitation, described as probably " the last of his race."
Sir Charles Anderson believes the existence of the Great Bustard in Yorkshire ceased in 1832 or 1833, when the last hen bird was trapped on Sir Wm. Strickland's estate at Boynton, near Bridlington. This, however, was not the case, as Professor Newton, in 1881, gives particulars of a conversation he had many years before on this subject, to the following effect : " In October 1854, Mn Barnard Henry Foord of Foxholes, near Scarborough, aged then twenty-five, told me he re- membered having seen Bustards the last was at Foxholes about nineteen years before (i.e., 1835). His father once saw eleven together. He had heard his uncle speak of running Bustards with greyhounds, as if he had been present at the time. This Mr. Foord is, I believe, now dead. I was very much struck at the time by the nature of his evidence, for I had believed that the bird was extinct in Yorkshire before 1835, and I remember pressing him particularly with questions on this point ; but he persisted in the truth of his statement. I confess I was not, nor am I now, satisfied with it, though I am unable to suggest any explanation of the difficulty for, even if he had been a year or two older than he said (and he could not have been more) it would still remain." Thomas Allis, in his oft-quoted Report, in 1844, wrote : Otis tarda. The Great Bustard F. O. Morris and Hugh Reid refer to a specimen killed at North Dalton, and now in the possession of James Hall, Esq., of Scorborough, near Beverley. See also Yarrell's " British Birds," where several instances are mentioned, but it is now nearly if not quite extinct. Arthur Strickland says : " This splendid bird used to be a constant resident on the extensive Wolds in this Riding, but the extension of tillage and the numerous enclosures which have taken place within this half century, and the introduction of artificial crops, particularly saintfoin and clover, which from being early cut often led to their destruction, they rapidly decreased, and have for some years been quite extinct. About thirty years ago [i.e., 1814] when I first knew this country, the flock frequenting this part of the Wolds was reduced to five or six, and appeared to remain at that standing for some time, and I not infrequently met with it when riding about ; it however soon became reduced, and it is about fifteen years since [i.e., 1829] the last was killed at Reighton, since which [time] none have been seen in this neighbourhood. I believe those frequenting the Wolds south of Driffield remained in existence some years longer, but are now totally exterminated."
In this last and somewhat offhand statement I am of opinion that Strickland was mistaken, for, judging from the evidence which I am able to quote, the birds on the north Wolds certainly existed a few years later than those in the south. The last Bustards which frequented the southern portion of the Wolds were in the vicinity of North and South Dalton. There is an egg the only Yorkshire one known to exist in the Scarborough Museum, the note attached to which states it was found by James Dowker of North Dalton, in the East Riding, in 1810. This was presented to the Museum in March 1840, by Dr. John Bury (H. W. Fielden, Zool. 1870, p. 2063). John Wolley, the eminent oologist, who saw the egg in 1843 and in 1850, noted in his egg book that it had been boiled with the notion of preserving it, and was of bad colour (torn. cit. p. 2102). H. Woodall informed F. O. Morris that in 1816 or 1817 James Dowker killed two Bustards near North Dalton, with a right and left shot, and saw a third, Mr. Woodall believed, at the same time ; a nest that had been forsaken was also found, with one egg in it, which is now in the Scarborough Museum.*
One of the birds shot was presented to George IV., then Prince Regent. A. S. Bell (torn. cit. p. 2103), added that the other was cooked by Mr. Dowker, and that in the previous year which he stated as* 1809 five Bustards were seen on the same moor, but were very wild, and none killed. These dates disagree, but it is more than probable that that of the label on the egg is the correct one, especially as the Rev. G. D. Armitage informs me (in litt. 1902), that a Great Bustard was obtained by W. Armitage at North Dalton in 1816. Sir Charles Anderson also states that the Bustard bred at Haywold [evidently the Hawold of the Ordnance Map, situate above North Dalton] about 1810.
It is by no means unlikely that a pair or two of Bustards may have lingered much longer in some districts than in others, as the Enclosures Act, which gave them ' notice to quit,' was not a general Act, but each parish obtained its extension at different times, hence some years elapsed between its operation in various districts, and the birds would linger the longest where the Act came into operation the latest. In 1865 the late W. W. Boulton saw at Scorborough, the seat of Mr. James Hall, two specimens which had been captured in the East Riding one, a female, was evidently a bird of the year ; it was taken alive in the neighbourhood of Scorborough, about forty years before (about 1825), and Mr. Hall had had it tethered on his lawn ; the other, an old male, Mr. Hall had forgotten the history of, but thought it was taken not far from Doncaster, and certainly in Yorkshire (op. cit. 1865, p. 9446). After Mr. Hall's death, his collection was sold, the male Bustard passing into the possession of Mr. Thomas Boynton, and the female into that of Mr. John Stephenson of Beverley. A pair male and female are preserved in the Blackmore * As bearing on this point it may be of interest to mention that a farm at Hutton Cranswick is still called " The Bustard's Nest."

STONE CURLEW. (Edicnemus scolopax).

Summer visitant, chiefly to the East and North Ridings ; very local, and decreasing in numbers ; still breeds in a few secluded districts. A rare straggler to west Yorkshire. Has been observed in winter on several occasions. An early allusion, probably the earliest, to the Stone Curlew, is found in the MS. of Marmaduke Tunstall, F.R.S., who lived at Wycliffe-on-Tees, thus : " The Thick-kneed Bustard, or Stone Curlew. Very rare in these parts, yet one was taken in this neighbourhood in August 1782, probably blown out of its customary haunts by storms, many of which felt about that time. It was extremely lean and pined." (Tunst. MS. 1784, p. 83.) Thomas Allis, in 1844, wrote : CEdicnemus crepitans. The Great Plover Breeds at Rossington and other places near Doncaster ; very rare near Leeds ; it also breeds in the vicinity of Scarborough, see Yarrell's " British Birds." A. Strickland says : " This bird used regularly to breed on the Wolds, but never abundantly since my knowledge, and I have known both the egg and young bird found, but they are now seldom met with ; they are very clamorous in the evening."
The Stone Curlew, Norfolk Plover, or Thick-knee, as it is variously called, is a summer visitor, usually arriving in April ; an exceptionally early date is March 1897, when Mr. E. B. Emerson and his gamekeeper saw a pair on the moor at Swainby-in- Cleveland. It is of very local distribution, being almost restricted to the eastern half of the county, and is, unfortunately, not only limited, but decreasing, in numbers. It was formerly not uncommon on the Wolds and the rough unenclosed tracts of heath and warren, where it bred in several districts until the middle of the past century. Marmaduke Tunstall referred to it in north Yorkshire at the close of the eighteenth century ; Allis and Strickland mentioned it as breeding near Doncaster, and regularly on the Wolds before 1844, although these old writers do not appear to have been aware that it was an abundant species in the warrens of the East Riding ; in the neighbourhood of Scarborough, also, it was reported by the late Prof. Williamson as nesting on the fallows (P.Z.S. 1836, Vol. iv. p. 77). In the centre of the East Riding, R. Mortimer of Fimber, writing in 1886, stated that he had seen old and young birds, and also eggs, for the previous four years, while old men of the village had told him it was very common on the Wolds half a century previously, before the enclosures, and when many rabbit warrens existed ; Mr. N. F. Dobree of Beverley observed that, up to 1870, the Stone Curlew was well known to him as a nesting species, and he possessed a fine series of eggs taken on the waste lands between Market Weighton and Selby. An interesting selection from the north Wolds, taken in the " fifties " and " sixties," has been obligingly presented to me by Mr. J. Braim, late of Pickering. The late W. W. Boulton possessed examples of the bird from Holme-on- Spalding-Moor in 1864 and 1865, where several pairs were nesting. Another well-known ornithologist, Mr. W. H. St. Quintin, writes as follows : " Scampston Hall, 2ist May 1890.
" My father used to see them (Stone Curlews), and shot one at Lowthorpe. About twelve years ago I saw a pair running in a furrow of a fallow field as I was driving between Weaverthorpe and Langtoft in early summer." The foregoing evidence, respecting the former status of the species in the Wold district, is confirmed by the following summary, which sets forth the reasons of its gradual decrease, and its present position amongst the nesting birds of the county.
Before the enclosure of the Yorkshire Wolds, the Stone Curlew was, no doubt, pretty generally distributed, and nested in considerable numbers all over the then sheep-walks and rabbit warrens which formerly extended over an enormous area, and were the home at that time of the Great Bustard. As the Wolds became gradually enclosed these two species, lovers of the lonely sheep-walks, were restricted to the remnants of these once famous downs, and as these became more and more circumscribed they were banished altogether, and what were once the uncultivated uplands are now waving cornfields. There were, however, still some portions, here and there, which were used as rabbit warrens, and in these the Stone Curlew continued to breed up to about 1874, when it finally ceased to do so, and it is now almost extinct in its old haunts.
The Stone Curlew at one time bred on the Hambleton Hills in North Yorkshire, though its present breeding grounds are confined to one or two localities in the East Riding and one in the North, the latter being the northerly limit of its nesting range in the British Isles, and the exact whereabouts of which are, in the interests of the birds themselves, not specifically pointed out further than by indicating that the boundaries of the two Ridings named include the breeding area as at present known. A recent instance of its nesting in south-east Yorkshire has been communicated to me by Mr. J. H. Gurney, who, writing on I5th May 1902, says, " You may be interested to know that on loth May Mr. Hugh Buxton found a nest and two eggs of the Norfolk Plover. He first saw a fox, which put the bird up, and that led to the discovery of the eggs." In several other parts of north and east Yorkshire it has been observed at intervals when on passage to and from its nesting quarters ; so long ago as 1845 J. Hogg recorded one between Saltburn and Brotten, and it has been once observed at both the Tees and Humber estuaries. In the west of the county it is a rare straggler ; a pair in the collection of the Rev. G. D. Armitage was inadvertantly killed in the summer of 1865, on Crossland moor, near Huddersfield ; one was taken on Coniston moor, in Craven, in August 1866, another at Bilton, near Harrogate, about 1865, and one was seen on Malham Ings about the end of April, 1895.
The Stone Curlew takes its departure in September or October ; on the gth of the latter month, in 1874, a flock of about forty was seen on rough grass land at Ganton, evi- dently assembling for migration. Occasionally cases are noted of individuals being met with in winter, these are probably late hatched birds unable to migrate at the usual time ; one occurred at Toothill in January 1862 ; another, obtained near Filey, was preserved by Mr. Stuart of Beverley ; there are several instances known of winter occurrences in Holder- ness ; Capt. Dunnington-Jefferson of Thicket Priory saw one on 24th December 1888 ; I examined a specimen in the possession of Mr. T. Machen of Bridlington, which had been killed at Sewerby on 8th January 1899 ; in the following month another was reported at Reighton ; and, finally, on i6th December, in the same year, a female example was caught by a dog, during a snowstorm, on the Redcar sand-hills, and brought alive to me ; it was, however, suffering from a shot wound, and only lived till the following day.
Nidification commences early in May, and eggs have been found on the first of that month. As exemplifying the pertinacity with which this species clings to its old haunts, it may be mentioned that, quite recently, Mr. T. Audas found a nest, in the East Riding, in the middle of a fairly large plantation of trees from twelve to fourteen feet high ; evidently an old nesting site, and resorted to prior to the planting of the trees. In the breeding season the Stone Curlew utters a note somewhat like " Kiddy, kiddy, kiddy Kiddy, kiddy, kiddy. Kiddy, kiddy, kiddy, kiddy " : this is when a bird has lost its companions. In the evening they leave the dry, sandy rabbit-warrens, and seek their food in the cultivated fields, when they become very noisy, and their wild whistling cries may be heard in many places where the birds are not to be found in the day-time.
Besides the names of Stone Curlew, Norfolk Plover, and Thick-knee, this bird sometimes receives the cognomen of Great or Whistling Plover ; Tunstall terms it Thick-kneed Bustard ; while Kelne was the name given by all the old warreners in east Yorkshire.

CREAM COLOURED COURSER. Cursorius gallicus (Gmelin).

Accidental visitant from northern Africa and Asia, of extremely rare occurrence. It is difficult to understand the causes which impel this beautiful bird to wander from the deserts of Africa and Asia to these inhospitable shores. The first reference to its occur- rence in Yorkshire appears in Atkinson's " Compendium of British Ornithology," where one is recorded as having been killed near Wetherby, in April 1816, but unfortunately so much injured by the shot, and so ill preserved, that it fell a prey to insects. It was seen alone, frequenting a dry piece of fallow ground, over which it ran with great swiftness, making frequent short flights, and was approached without difficulty. The haunts and habits of this bird, as described by Latham, exactly agree with the foregoing, and in no respect do they differ in plumage except that in the specimen under notice the black patch behind the eyes was undivided by any pale streak, and the crown of the head was ash-coloured. A correct drawing of this bird was made when in its most perfect state (Atkinson's " Compendium," 1820, p. 165).
This is the same example as is referred to by Thomas Allis, in his Report on the Birds of Yorkshire, 1844, thus : Cursorius isabellinus. Cream-coloured Courser Formerly the only Yorkshire specimen was the one recorded by my friend H. Denny, in his Catalogue of Leeds Birds ; in the " Annals of Natural History," Vol. vii., he says a specimen was shot in April 1816, in a fallow field near Wetherby, by Mr. Rhodes of that place. It came into the posses- sion of Mr. J. Walker of Killingbeck Lodge, near Leeds ; he observes " I did not see the specimen myself, but I have seen a most accurate and highly finished drawing taken from the bird, which was in such a mutilated state when it came into the possession of my friend Mr. J. Walker, as to render its preservation impossible, having been killed several days ; but from his sound practical knowledge as a naturalist and his abilities as an artist, which are well known in this neighbour- hood, there cannot remain the least doubt as to the authenticity of the species ; I may add that its peculiar habit of running.

KENTISH PLOVER. (Egialitis cantiana (Lath.)

Casual visitant, of extremely rare occurrence. This small Plover nests on the south coast of England* and is but a rare and casual visitant during its migratory movements in spring and autumn.* Of our seven county occurrences it will be observed that five have been recorded from the vicinity of Bridlington. The first example came into the possession of Mr. Matthew Bailey of Flamborough in 1857. Two, a male and female, were obtained on 25th and 28th May, respectively, in the year 1869, on the sands at Ulrome, by Mr. Thomas Boynton, and are now in his collection at Bridlington (Zool. 1869, pp. 1843-44).
Another example was procured by Mr. Boynton in 1875, at the same place where those previously mentioned were obtained, and is now in the collection at Burton Agnes, formed by the late Sir Henry Boynton. Mr. Forster of Bridlington is in the possession of a specimen, taken near Flamborough in August 1881. * Until the year 1904 Yorkshire could lay claim to being the most northerly county from which it has been reported, but on the 2Oth May in that year the late C. Braithwaite of Seaton Carew picked up a female specimen at the north side of the Teesmouth. I have had opportunities of examining the last four men- tioned examples in the collections of their respective owners. The latest occurrences took place on I2th September 1891, when two in immature plumage were killed at Cayton Bay, near Scarborough, as I am informed by Mr. W. J. Clarke of that town.

TURNSTONE. Strepsilas interpres

Winter visitant on the coast, arriving in August and September, retiring further south as winter approaches. A return passage occurs in spring ; a few remain during summer. The earliest reference to this, as a Yorkshire species, appears to be that of Thomas Allis, in his oft-mentioned Report on Yorkshire Birds, written in 1844, thus : Strepsilas collaris. Turnstone Met with on the coast, frequenting rocky shore ; not infrequently seen at Filey. " A. Strickland."
This handsome bird is an autumn or winter visitant on the coast, not uncommon on passage, and particularly abundant in the Tees and Humber districts. Towards the end of July the immature birds commence to arrive from the nesting grounds, the 26th being the earliest date of which I have any record, but the great majority do not appear until August and early September ; I have at these times frequently recognized their calls when the birds were passing overhead on still, dark nights. As stated, most of these are immature, yet a few adults in faded summer plumage are occasionally found with them. Very few Turnstones remain on the Yorkshire coast after the middle of autumn ; I once procured an old bird on the 8th of October, and saw an im- mature example as late as the 2ist of that month, while at Spurn it was numerous on 24th November 1888, an unusually late date. On the return passage in spring small parties, from five to twenty in number, are observed going north ; I have noted them at the Teesmouth as early as 8th May in the year 1901 ; and a very large flock of shore birds, consisting of Turnstones, Knots, and Grey Plovers, was on the sands at Redcar on gth June 1887, at 3 a.m. At both the Tees and the Humber a few, probably non-breeding birds, though in full plumage, remain throughout the summer.
This species is essentially a shore-bird, frequenting the harder and stony portions of the flats, and at the Teesmouth it is often found on the slag heaps which are left bare at half tide ; small parties, when on migration, occasionally rest on the " scars," reefs of low-lying rocks, some of them a mile distant from the shore, and uncovered at low tide. The Turnstone is seldom found far away from salt water, though it has been reported from one or two inland localities ; one was shot from a flock of pigeons at Boroughbridge in October 1849 ; others occurred at Cold Hiendley Reservoir in September 1868, and at Harrogate in 1896, whilst in 1883 one was killed from a flock of seven on Eldrick moor.
Of local names, there are but two known to me in York- shire : it is called Dotterel in the Humber district, and at the Teesmouth is known as Turnstone Plover.

WOODCOCK. Scolopax rusticola

Resident, in limited numbers. Best known as a winter immigrant, arriving in October and November, sometimes in large nights. Appears on the coast in March and April preparatory to returning to its northern haunts. Historically speaking, the Woodcock's association with Yorkshire dates back to remote times, for it is mentioned in the ordinances issued by Royal proclamation as to the prices o c victuals in the City of York, in the year 1393, i6th Richard II. as follows : " For a Woodcock id." It next appears in connection with the great banquet, given in 1466 at Cawood, by Earl Warwick, the " King Maker," in honour of the enthronization of his brother, George Nevell, as Arch- bishop o York, when in the goodly provision made were " Woodcockes, 400 " (Leland's " Collectanea ") ; it also figures in the Northumberland Househo'd Book, in 1512, thus : " Item it is thought good that Woodcokes be hade for my Lordes owne mees and non other and to be at jd. a pece, or jd. ob. (ijd.) at the moste." In the " Correspondence of Dr. Richardson " of North Bierley (p. 226), is an interesting reference to this species, contained in a letter, dated North Bierley, I3th November 1725, and addressed to Sir Hans Sloane in London, thus : " On Wednesday last I sent you a pott of Woodcocks by .... a Kendall carrier, who inns at the Bell, in Wood Street.-"
Thomas Allis, in 1844, wrote : Scopolax rusticola. The Woodcock Common in most parts ; W. Eddison says it is often numerous ; it comes about the 5th November, and departs about the i/th March. Seldom seen in summer, though he is of opinion it does occasionally remain the year round, and breed in the Storrs Hall and Farnley Woods ; F. O. Morris states that several instances have occurred of their breeding in Yorkshire. J. Heppenstall says it breeds occasionally near Sheffield, and has done so this year in Wharncliffe Wood. Dr. Farrar has seen this bird late in summer, and is satisfied of its breeding here. Arthur Strickland observes that the promontory of Flamborough Head, being the first land that birds from the Continent approach, has been long celebrated for flights of these birds, which are occasionally found there on their first arrival, but these arrivals are much less certain and numerous than they used to be, and the birds soon disperse westwards.
The earliest authentic account of the Woodcock's nesting in England is, probably, that by Willughby, who stated in his " Ornithology " (1678, pp. 289, 290), that " Mr. Jessop [of Broomhall] saw young Woodcock to be sold at Sheffield." J. Heppenstall of that town also mentioned the fact of young birds being observed (Zool. 1843, p. 15 ; and 1844, P- 667), and according to Seebohm (" British Birds," vol. iii. p. 234), it still breeds in the Sheffield district, where that author saw a nest in April 1870. It was not unknown as a breeding species to Allis and, doubtless owing to the greater interest now taken in ornithology, and to the operation of the Wild Birds Protection Acts, the discovery of the Woodcock's nest is no uncommon occurrence. In addition to the localities referred to, it is reported from near Doncaster in 1834, Stain- borough Woods, near Barnsley, in 1831 and 1876, in the secluded woods of Airedale, Ribblesdale, the Forest of Bowland, Nidderdale, Wharfedale, Craven, the Washburn Valley (where I saw eggs in 1903), near Ripon, and other suitable parts of West Yorkshire. In the North Riding it breeds with greater regularity and frequency than is generally supposed to be the case ; the late J. Carter of Masham has known of six nests in one season in Lower Wensleydale ; it is probably of annual occurrence near York, in Swaledale, and near Sedbergh ; on the southern slopes of the Hambleton Hills several pairs breed near Sessay and Coxwold, also near Helmsley, in Rye- dale, and in Bilsdale, where I saw three old birds in June 1883. In the Cleveland area it nests regularly in the woods of Wilton, Arncliffe, Swainby, Ingleby, and Kildale, as well as lower down the Esk Valley, and in the Mulgrave and Crinkle woods near the coast.
In East Yorkshire the nest has been occasionally known on the Wolds, and in 1875 one was found at Knapton. The home-bred birds leave their nesting quarters as winter ap- proaches, and, presumably, migrate further southward.* This sporting bird is, however, best known as an autumn and winter immigrant, coming, as a rule, in two great flights. Its arrival on the coast can be predicted with great certainty, viz. : during the first N.E., E. or S.E. wind after or about the middle of October ; if no such wind occurs there is not a great arrival of 'Cock in that month, but if the period of full moon synchronizes with the other favourable conditions the flight is more pronounced ; a supplementary flight takes place in November, and very often a small one in September, on the i6th of which month, in 1890, I saw a single bird fly up the sands at Redcar. The earliest arrivals I am aware of were in the last week of August 1883, when one was shot on the sand-hills and two or three others were seen near the Tees Breakwater.
The numbers vary greatly in different years, depending mainly on the force and direction of the wind and the state of the weather. On dark and foggy nights * Marked birds bred in Alnwick Park, Northumberland, have been shot in places as widely apart as the south-west of England, mid-Scotland and Ireland, whilst some have been killed near the nesting localities, showing that the young do not always follow the usual rule in migration, (ci. Field, 23rd April 1904.) they strike the lanterns of our sea beacons, many being thus immolated at Spurn and Flamborough ; at the latter station in October 1864, a Woodcock dashed through the quarter-inch glass, and was picked up dead and mutilated amongst the lamps. A south-east to north-east wind is most favourable for coast observation, as the birds on arrival are exhausted and ready to drop anywhere, and under these conditions, with the addition t)f a foggy or drizzly atmosphere, the coast gunners are always on the alert for the " Cocks' ' advent to take advantage of the opportunity to make a good bag.
A quaint reference to the migration of this bird is made in a communication from Ralph Johnson of Brignall, to the renowned John Ray, thus : " Brignall, 7th May 1686. Sir .... and Woodcockes from Norway come often so tired to us/' (" Correspondence of John Ray," p. 183.) At Flamborough, on arriving, they frequently drop at the foot of the cliffs, being sometimes found amongst the boulders on the shore, or seek shelter in the little ravines running up from the beach ; several occurred there in October 1903, and it is quite a mistaken idea to imagine they are lean or in poor condition on first landing, for of their estimable qualities I have personal experience. At Redcar they com- monly find refuge in the benty grass on the sand-hills and the Tees Breakwater, and occur in most unlikely situations : in the streets, in doorways and on window-sills, in yards, gardens (I flushed one, on 2ist November 1902, in the garden behind my house), on the sands, and amongst the fishing cobles. Although generally observed singly on migration, they do occasionally cross the sea in company ; I have on three separate occasions seen two together, and, in November 1877, when they were very abundant in Cleveland, a small party of nine was noticed coming in from seaward.
According to the information supplied to the British Associa- tion Migration Committee, and detailed in their Reports, it is found that great arrivals of Woodcock took place as follows : 1881. I9th to 20th October. Upwards of a hundred shot at Spurn. 1882. Second week in October. 1883. Fourth week in October. 1884. Throughout October and up to mid-November. 1885. 22nd to 24th October. N.E. gale. At Spurn seventy-nine were secured by one party on the 24th. Small red form. 1886. Third week in October. Subsequently to the Migration Reports there were large flights in 1888, in the first week of November ; in 1889, in the second week of November ; and in 1890, on 20th to 22nd October, when forty were killed at Flamborough.
The general character of the migratory movements of this; interesting species in Yorkshire is here briefly outlined ; a few odd stragglers keep dropping in throughout October, and until the November flight, after which we may conclude the main body will be established in their winter haunts, though occasionally in very severe weather, when birds are " frozen out," local migrations may be observed.
The vernal migration of the Woodcock is, probably, more noticeable inland than on the coast ; at that period, March and April, they may often be flushed in woods and spinneys, especially if their departure be delayed by continuous easterly winds. The late Prof. W. C. Williamson stated that at Scar- borough they used to be shot in March, when prevented from continuing their over-sea journey (P.Z.S. 1836, Vol. iv. p. 77), and it is stated in the Annual Register for the year 1799, that " Many Woodcock, with Plovers and Crows, were cast ashore in Holderness, during a great snowstorm on the 4th of April." At Redcar I have noticed them in mid- April, and in 1891 they remained for several days in the vicinity of the coast during stormy weather while, doubtless, awaiting a favourable opportunity for continuing their j ourney and crossing the North Sea. At Flamborough and Spurn, also, they have been noted on the vernal passage.
A species of such general distribution needs but little further notice in that respect ; as is well known to most naturalists and sportsmen, on its first arrival it may be flushed in almost any place : hedgerows, on moors, amongst bracken, and other unlikely situations, but, after settling down, it becomes " haunted," as the Cleveland saying goes, and year after year may be found in the same spot, whilst, if killed, its place is soon taken by another. Heavy toll of their ranks is often exacted by coast shooters, yet large bags are made on favoured estates in various parts of the county. Lord de L'Isle and Dudley told me that the largest number killed at Ingleby in one season was seventy- three, in the year 1864 ; and W. Cook, formerly head keeper at Crinkle, a very favourite haunt of 'Cock, bagged twenty- four in one day. There had been a heavy snowstorm, and he tried all the known resorts of the bird ; twice he killed a right and left, and once two at a shot, thus emulating Chantrey's famous achievemnet immortalised in " Winged Words."
So much has already been written, in works specially devoted to game-birds, on the habits of the Woodcock, that it would be superfluous to occupy the space in a county history for this purpose ; it may not be out of place, however, to state that the old birds have been seen carrying the young, which they held pressed under their bodies, but not in their claws ; and, as early as ist April 1894, Lord de L'Isle and Dudley discovered a nest with the parent bird sitting on four eggs. A singular instance of tameness in this species is related by the late Hon. H. Sidney, who says (Field, 3rd April 1886) that, during the snowstorm of that winter, the occupants of a house in the village of Ingleby threw out food for small birds, and were surprised one day to see a Woodcock come in quest of a meal ; it continued to put in an appearance every day till the thaw came, and if the food was not ready at the same time each day it sat waiting for its arrival.
The average weight of this bird is I2oz. The late J. Gould remarked, in reference to a Woodcock shot near Halifax in 1861, and said to have weighed 20 oz., "A bird of this weight I have never seen," an assertion which will be confirmed by every other ornithologist. The heaviest of which I have personal knowledge weighed 17 oz., and was killed at Hutton, near Guisborough, while the lightest healthy bird was one of 7 Joz., obtained by Mn E, B, Emerson at Easby-in-Cleveland. Of Yorkshire varieties, Tunstall recorded one sent to him in 1766, shot in Winston lordship, near York, which had all the large feathers perfectly white. The late W. Talbot of Wakefield had one in his collection, taken on 2ist September 1851, of a uniform rufous or light brown shade ; a white speci- men was killed on Strensall Common in October 1875 ; and an example, almost white in plumage but with faint yellow markings, was reported at Ormesby-in-Cleveland in the first week of November 1904.

KNOT. Tringa canutus

Winter visitant, abundant on the coast, especially in the Tees and Humber estuaries. The majority retire further south as winter approaches ; a return passage observed in April and May ; occasionally occurs inland. This bird was evidently appreciated as a table delicacy by the Percys, as the first reference to it occurs in the Northumberland Household Book, begun in 1512 : amongst the birds to be provided for " my Lordes owne Mees " appear " Knottes at id." Thomas Allis, in 1844, wrote : Tringa canutus. The Knot Has been met with near Hebden Bridge, but is rare ; it is rare near Leeds ; H. Denny mentions a pair shot at Killingbeck in 1839 ; A. Strickland says it is met with in small flocks on most of our coasts in autumn and winter, in grey plumage, and occasionally in spring assuming the red dress of breeding but never in full dress.
Needless to remark, Strickland was wrongly informed when he made the foregoing statement that the Knot is never found in this county in full dress ; it regularly occurs in that plumage in May and June, when on passage from its more southerly winter quarters to the nesting grounds within the Arctic Circle, and at Spurn it is quite common at this period, though the late J. Cordeaux was in error in supposing that that district is its northern limit in Yorkshire on the spring migration. (See also Bar-tailed Godwit.) I have for many years known it at Redcar, where migratory flocks may be observed resting on the tidal rocks, and an old fisherman tells me that, in the middle of last century, these birds often used to alight on Salt Scar in the spring of the year when going north. A large mixed flock of Knots and other shore birds appeared on the sands at 3 a.m. on Qth June 1887 ; at Spurn they have been seen coming from the south as late as I3th June in 1883 ; whilst small parties of non-breeding birds, in various states of plumage, have occasionally remained throughout the summer.
The Knot is, however, best known as an autumn or winter visitant on the southward journey from its breeding quarters, when a few old red-breasted individuals appear in July and August, sometimes as early as the first or second week of the former month, though the earliest date of which I have personal knowledge is the 23rd of July in the year 1884. Late in August, and during September, flights of young birds occur, accompanied by an occasional adult ; one in partial summer plumage was picked up at Spurn as late as 7th November 1881. In October and November a further migration takes place, and in some seasons enormous flights are met with at the Tees and Humber estuaries ; at the last named place the late J. Cordeaux graphically described the movements and evolutions of these enormous congrega- tions (" Birds of Humber District," p. 132). As the season advances they become wild and difficult of approach, whilst, if an outbreak of very severe weather should occur, many retire further south.
From the information supplied to the compilers of the British Association Migration Reports we learn that this bird frequently falls a victim to the attractions of the Light- house rays on dark and foggy nights, and on the Cleveland coast it is no uncommon thing to hear the notes of migrating flocks on still autumn evenings. At the majority of the seaboard stations between the Tees and the Humber the Knot is a more or less abundant visitant in spring and autumn, and also at various inland localities ; in addition to those mentioned by Allis, it has been recorded from Halifax, Cold Hiendley Reservoir, and East Cottingwith.
The causes which govern the abundance or scarcity of shore-birds visiting our islands are not within the knowledge of naturalists in this country, but it may be of interest to state that years of " great plenty " were 1872, 1881, 1883, 1887, 1892, and 1895. In the days before the invention of the breech-loader, when the mud-flats of our estuaries were less frequented by gunners than at present is the case, large bags of Knots were secured by fishermen and professional fowlers. I have often heard old sportsmen relate their ex- periences of these times " afore t' licenses cam oot," when they sometimes bagged more Knots and Godwits than they could conveniently carry, and, as birds of this class are gregarious and pack into close bodies, it follows that a " shot into the brown " is attended with disastrous effects ; I have myself, in recent years, gathered thirty- two Knots killed with a " right and left " from a 12-bore, though the bird does not now occur in anything like the same numbers as formerly. Its vernacular name in the Spurn district is Plover Knot. In the Tees it is known to the professionals as Dunlin ; Redcar fishermen call it Grey Plover ; and Red Sandpiper is an old term, now obsolete, used in Fothergill's list (Whitaker's " Richmondshire," 1823).

RUFF. Machetes pugnax

Bird of passage in spring and autumn ; very limited in numbers, and chiefly observed on the coast. A rare straggler inland. The earliest reference to this species, in connection with Yorkshire, may be found in the account of the great banquet at Cawood in 1466, and it is evident these birds were held in high esteem as delicacies, as it is stated that " of the fowles called Rees there were supplied 200 dozen " (Leland's " Collectanea "). It also appears in the Northumberland Household Book, in 1512, where, amongst the birds to be provided " for my Lordes owne Mees," are " Reys," the price allotted being 2d. each.
Thomas Allis, 1844, wrote : Machetes pugnax. The Ruff Used to be common, according to F. O. Morris, on Hatfield Moor twenty years ago ; are still occasionally met with on Skipwith Common not far from Selby. I have one specimen in winter plumage shot near York in February, and have seen one or two others in the same plumage shot about the same time. A. Strickland says before the drainage of the Carrs they used to be taken in considerable numbers in the breeding season, but he should doubt if any had bred in this county within the last half century ; he never met with any except young birds of the year that occasionally stray and join flocks of other species of Sandpipers. This singular and interesting species, in the latter part of the eighteenth and early part of the last century, bred commonly in suitable marshy districts, but owing to drainage and cultivation of its haunts, and to the practice, which at that period was in vogue, of capturing the birds in the breeding season to fatten them for the table, it is now only known as a bird of passage during migration in spring and autumn. Under these circumstances a short review of its former status in the county is desirable.
In Pennant's " British Zoology " (1766, ii. p. 363), we are told that "These birds are found ... in the East Riding of Yorkshire where they are taken in nets, and fattened for the table, with bread and milk, hempseed, and sometimes with boiled wheat ; but if expedition is required, sugar is added, which will make them in a fortnight's time a lump of fat : they will then sell for 2/- or 2/6 a piece. Judgment is required for taking the proper time for killing them, when they are in the highest pitch of fatness, for if that is neglected the birds are apt to fall away. [Here follow method of killing, dressing, habits as to fighting, and intimation that the females or Reeves are not taken.] They lay four eggs in a tuft of grass, beginning to lay the first week in May, and sit about a month ; the eggs are whitish, thinly marked with deep ferruginous spots. They are birds of passage, coming into the fens the latter end of April, and disappearing about Michaelmas. These birds are taken by the fen fowlers in nets that are about 40 yards long, and 7 or 8 feet high. These are sup- ported by sticks at an angle of near forty-five degrees, and placed either on dry ground, or in very shallow water, not remote from the reeds, among which the fowler conceals him- self, till the birds, enticed by a ' stale ' or stuffed bird, come under the nets ; he then, by pulling a string, lets them fall."
The Rev. F. O. Morris stated (" British Birds "), that it was common on Hatfield Moor, near Thome, and on Skipwith Common, near Selby, about 1824 (see Allis). According to Hatfield's " Historical Notices of Doncaster " (1866, p. 24), " The Ruff once bred near the Decoy (Potteric Carr) and the Moor Buzzard has been known to build among the ling, a fact often observed by Mr. Reid." This statement receives important confirmation from A. G. More, of the Science and Art Museum, Dublin, who, writing under date of i6th June 1881, says : " In his list, Mr. H. Reid remarks of the Ruff, ' None left, once plentiful, I have taken numbers of them.' This was probably near Hatfield Moor, where the Black-tailed Godwit used to breed, but Mr. Reid did not give me any locality ; I think he was in communication with the Rev. F. O. Morris, who gives Hatfield as a locality." Another breeding ground of this bird, until the early part of last century, was Riccal Common, near Selby, and I have seen several adult examples, in Capt. Dunnington-Jefferson's collection at Thicket Priory, which were taken in that neighbourhood.
In the Western Ainsty it was formerly common at Wighill Ings, and bred at Newton Kyme ; the latest instance of its appearance in that area was in September 1905, when one was reported near Harrogate. The Holderness district was eminently suitable for the requirements of the Ruff before drainage and high cultivation banished it, and other marsh-loving birds, from the fastnesses they frequented ; up to about a hundred years ago it bred near the sites of Meaux, Watton, and Scorborough Decoys, and on the Carrs through which the river Hull runs. Birds of this species are still often observed there, which suggests they are guided by the old instinct and would probably breed again if the conditions were favourable. In the Zoologist for 1864 (p. 9362), the late W. W. Boulton mentioned facts suggestive of their having nested in the locality during the summer of that year.*
At the present day it occurs on the spring migration from mid-April to late in May, very sparingly, and is much more numerous during the autumnal passage southward in August and September, when immigrants from the Continent are frequently noted on the coast, especially at the Tees and Humber estuaries. A detailed list of these occurrences would be tedious to particularize ; it is met with in more or less numbers every autumn, and during September 1876 a flock of fourteen, three of which were killed, was seen near Redcar. It was fairly common at Spurn in 1891, whilst ten were noticed at the Teesmouth in August and September 1903. Inland it is much rarer than on the coast, though it has been reported from Wensleydale in 1873 ; in Upper Teesdale it is occasionally killed by Grouse shooters ; at Pilmoor, near Thirsk, one was procured in October 1879, an< ^ three at the same time near Northallerton ; a pair was shot in September 1902, at Deighton, near Welbury ; at Beverley it is a fairly regular visitor in spring and autumn, and is occasion- ally obtained at East Cottingwith and Scampston. In the West Riding it is reported from Wighill Ings, Newton Kyme, Bilton, Harrogate, Wakefield, and Barnsley.
In the York Museum is a large case of Ruffs and Reeves, in the full glory of their nuptial dress, from the Strickland collection, and two pairs of each sex in similar plumage, also obtained in Yorkshire, are in the Chester Museum. The wintering of the Ruff was recorded by the late J. Cordeaux (Nat. 1889, pp. 44-129), specimens being shot on the 7th and 20th January in that year at Sunk Island and Holly m, near Withernsea; the observer being under the impression that these were the first instances of such an occurrence in Great Britain. The late Rev. H. A. Macpherson (torn. cit. p. 79), drew attention to the fact that so early as 1876 it had been recorded in winter, and in the same journal * In the years 1901, '02, '03 the Ruff nested on a marsh at the north side of the Teesmouth (cf. " Ibis," 1906, p. 735).
it was reported that one was exposed for sale in Leeds market in January 1877. These, however, are not the earliest records, for Thomas Allis, in his Report written in 1844, stated that he had one specimen in winter plumage, from near York, in February, and had seen one or two others in the same plumage taken about the same time. In autumn this species frequently associates with other shore birds ; I saw one in August 1888 flying in company with a flock of Sanderlings, and have known it consort with Knots, Golden Plover, Redshank, and even Teal.

SANDWICH TERN. Sterna cantiaca (Gmeliri).

Bird of passage in spring and autumn. Very rare inland. The first mention of this bird's occurrence is in Allis's Report, 1844, as follows : * See Mr. J. H. Gurney's article on British examples of this Tern (Zool. 1887, p. 458). Sterna cantiaca. The Sandwich Tern Is met with near Hudders- field. W. Eddison says : "In the commencement of severe winters it is common for us to be visited by small flocks of Gulls, Terns, and other sea-fowl, driven so far inland by rough weather. Terns of nearly all the British kinds have frequently been shot."
This noble Tern, the Sea-Swallow of the east coast, is a visitant on its way to and from its breeding places to the northward, the nearest of which is at the Fame Islands, where a large and increasing colony exists. It occurs more frequently in spring than most of the other Terns, and has been noted at Spurn and Flamborough, while every year, early in May, a few are to be seen off Redcar and at the Teesmouth. The earliest date on which I have observed it is 3rd May 1894, when several passed at sea ; I also heard one on I2th June 1886, and an adult male was picked up on ist July 1888. During the whole of the summers of 1904, 1905, and 1906 two pairs remained in the vicinity of Redcar, where I fre- quently saw them throughout June and July, fishing near the rocks opposite my house.
In August the Sandwich Tern begins to move southward, accompanied by the young birds, the main body passing on without lingering, though a few remain off the coast and in the estuary, small parties being reported late in September and occasionally in October, the peculiarly harsh, grating call at once giving notice of their approach, though the birds themselves may be undiscernible, and probably a mile distant. It was more numerous than usual in 1902, and remained until 27th September. The latest record for the Redcar district is yth October 1881, when I saw one at the Teesmouth, though a later date for the county is given in 1875, one being obtained on I5th December, at Filey (Zool. 1876, p. 4804). On the autumn passage this species has been met with at most of the coast stations between Teesmouth and Spurn, at the latter place consorting with the Arctic and Common Terns.
It is very rare inland, though it has been recorded from Huddersfield (" Hobkirk," 2nd Ed. 1868); Wakefield (G. Roberts, September 1868), and on loth October 1881, Mr. E. B. Emerson saw two at Deighton Manor, near North- allerton, flying southward. The alleged breeding of the Sandwich Tern at Spurn was disproved many years ago (Zool. 1869-70-71). Local name : Big Sea-Swallow.

COMMON TERN.Sterna hirundo (Naumann).

Bird of passage in spring and autumn. Occasionally occurs inland. Though sea-fowl are not valued as table delicacies at the present day, the first allusion to the Tern, as a Yorkshire bird, appears in the Northumberland Household Book (1512). Amongst the birds for " My Lordes own Mees," are included 11 Ternes after iiij. a jd." Another early mention of the species is contained in the Cottonian MS., which is also referred to in the Introduc- tion, thus : " Neere unto Dobhoome (the porte in the mouth of Tease so named) .... an infinite number of sea-fowle laye their egges heere and there scatteringlie in such sorte that in tyme of breedinge one can hardly sett his foote soe warelye that he spoyle not many of their nestes " (Cott. MS. 1604). The shores of the Tees estuary at that time would afford very suitable nesting ground for birds of this family ; old inhabitants of the district are still living (1906), who can recollect the time when Terns nested in great quantity, and the Common Tern would, doubtless, be one, if not the most numerous of the fowl resorting there in summer.
Willughby's allusion to the Brown Tern may be referable to the young of this bird : " The Brown Tern Larus cinereus minor (Aldrov). This is also the brown Tern of Mr. Johnson [of Brignall, near Greta Bridge] (if I be not mistaken) whose underside is all white, the upper brown ; the Wings partly brown, partly ash-coloured ; the Head black ; the Tail not forked. The Birds of this kind are gregarious, flying in companies." (Will. " Orn." 1678, p. 352.) Thomas Allis, in 1844, reported as follows : Sterna hirundo. Common Tern Common on the coast ; seen near Leeds rarely ; about Huddersfield occasionally ; Hebden Bridge rarely ; not infrequent near Barnsley, where they frequent the fresh water reservoirs and the course of the canals.
The Common Tern is a visitant in spring and autumn, when on its way to and from its nesting quarters, the near- est of which, where it breeds in any abundance, consorting with the Arctic Tern, being at the Fame Islands. The first passers-by are noticed early in May ; in 1883 on the 4th of that month they were observed at Spurn all day going north (Fifth Migration Report). At Redcar and the Teesmouth it occurs in spring, though not so frequently as in the autumn when on the return passage south, and accompanied by the young birds. In August it congregates in large flocks, which remain on the coast, in the estuary of the Tees, and sometimes, in rough weather, in the Humber, following and feeding on the young herrings until nearly mid-autumn. It was more numerous off Redcar on 26th and 27th September 1883, than during the whole of the year ; a few linger into mid-October, and odd birds even later ; on gth November 1892 an immature example was procured at Redcar, while during a heavy storm on igth November 1893, many Terns were observed at Flamborough. This is by far the commonest of the family in the Teesmouth area, though at Flamborough and Spurn it is not so abundant as the Arctic Tern. The two species frequently intermix when following the herring " sile," and are difficult to discriminate when in large flocks and at a dis- tance, but as a rule S. hirundo outnumbers macrura as ten to one on the Cleveland coast.
Inland it is occasionally found on rivers and the reservoirs which supply the large West Riding towns with water, where it alights in passing on migration, or is driven out of its course by stormy weather. The Migration Reports contain but few references to its occurrence at the Light stations ; one was killed against Spurn lantern in September 1896. As stated above, this bird probably bred at the Tees- mouth in the seventeenth century, and another colony is supposed to have existed at that period at Hornsea Mere, although it is not unlikely the so-called " Terns " were Black- headed Gulls, which used to nest there in great numbers. A reference to this breeding place is contained in a letter to Abraham de la Pryme, dated " Hornsey, 2ist December 1693," which runs as follows : " Sir, I received yours of the 5th inst. (then follows a description of the mere or ' marr,' as it is termed). I had almost forgot to add that there are three hills (islands we call them) in the marr, two of them at the season of the year are so full of tern eggs and birds as can be imagined. A man must be very careful it he tread not on them ! Your very humble Servant, W. Lambert." (From the " Diary of Abraham de la Pryme," pp. 272-73. Surtees Socy. liv.)
The only vernacular name that can, with strict accuracy, be applied to this bird, is that used generally for the family, viz., Sea Swallow.

KITTIWAKE. Rissa tridactyla

Resident, breeding on the cliffs at Bempton and Speeton. A great increase of numbers takes place in autumn. Pennant was the first to notice the Kittiwake in Yorkshire, and thus alluded to its occupation of the Flamborough Cliffs " It inhabits the romantic cliffs of Flamborough Head, where it is called Petrell " (" British Zoology," Vol. iv. 1770, p. 26 ; and in his " Tour in Scotland " (1771, p. 15), he again referred to it at Flamborough (see Introduction). Thomas Allis, in 1844, wrote as follows : Larus tridactylus. Kittiwake Gull Common on the coast ; it occurs near Huddersfield, also about Sheffield, and is occasionally seen near York. A. Strickland says " They breed in very great abundance on the rocks [cliffs] at Flamborough, but leave the country soon after, and are never seen here in winter."*
This graceful Gull is resident in Yorkshire, nesting in considerable numbers on the cliffs of the Flamborough range at Bempton and Speeton. In the first half of the past century it was extremely abundant there Charles Waterton, in 1834, found the nests so numerous as totally to defy any attempt to count them but, unfortunately, a demand arose for the beautiful feathers forming its plumage, and thousands were slaughtered to meet the exigencies of fashion ; it has been asserted that a single gunner made from 15 to 18 per week, during the season, for feathers, whilst in one year four thousand birds passed through his hands, being sent to London plumassiers. The time chosen for shooting was just as the birds were building their nests, the lining for which is generally composed of grass or roots collected on the cliff tops, or in the fields adjacent. I have seen the birds busily engaged plucking the grass on the edges of the cliffs, and the veteran climber, Edward Hodgson of Buckton, can remember when a * Strickland was in error in denning the position of this bird, and especially so when he stated they are " never seen here in winter." whole field was cleared by the Kittiwakes of " twitch," which had been worked out of the land, between Saturday and Monday. The question formerly used to be asked, " Has thou been up at Cliff ; is Kitts carrying ? " by men who wished to know if it was worth while going out to the slaughter. Excursionists and gunners from inland towns were also guilty of wanton cruelty in shooting the poor birds while nesting, the young being left to perish on the cliffs, and there was a danger of their extermination, until the passing of the Sea- birds Preservation Act of 1869 put an end to the butchery. Now the numbers of nesting birds are gradually increasing, although, where one nest may at present be seen, there used formerly to be half-a-dozen, and the eggs were then sold at the rate of four or five for a penny.
The Kittiwake arrives at the breeding quarters at Bempton and Speeton at dates varying from the I2th of March, which is the earliest I have note of, up to the third week of April. The method of climbing for Seabirds' eggs, described under the heading of the Guillemot, is applicable to this species also. The first clutches consist of three in number, and are laid about the last week in May ; if these are taken the bird lays again, but, as a rule, produces two only as the second clutch. W. Wilkinson, the Bempton cliff-climber, has frequently taken eight eggs from one nest : first three, second and third clutches of two each, and for the last laying one only ; he has very rarely known nine laid by one bird, and, in the instances where this has occurred, the second set has consisted of three. The intervals between the laying of the clutches is practically the same as in the case of the Guillemot, about fourteen days, or, if the eggs are incubated, the time is extended to eighteen or twenty days. Occasionally varieties are found of a pale green colour, entirely spotless ; a clutch of this type was brought up from Bempton cliffs in June 1902, while I was present. In the event of the bird being obliged to produce a second clutch the first egg is at once sat on, consequently it may thus happen that eggs from the same nest are in different stages of incubation, and in July 1904, 1 noticed young in variant degrees of growth in one nest. If the nest should be destroyed, or knocked off the ledge, as sometimes occurs in the climber's efforts to reach the eggs, and there is not sufficient time to construct another nest, the bird may lay again on the bare rock. The young, " pen-feathered," have been seen as early as the 3rd of July.
In autumn vast numbers of old and young birds, many of them migrants, assemble round the Flamborough Headland, and at other parts of the coast, attracted by the shoals of young herrings on which they feed ; at these times one of the most interesting sights for an ornithologist may be witnessed at sea on a calm day in late autumn. One or two light- winged forms will be observed gracefully gliding in mid- air above the sea, when, its attention arrested perhaps by a shoal of sprats, one suddenly swoops down and snatches a fish from below the surface. Instantly there is commotion ; with screams and swoops the others dash down to take their share of the prey ; then more silvery wings are seen glancing in the sunlight, hurrying in from all quarters of the compass, and in the course of two or three minutes there is a crowd of shrieking, excited birds wheeling around where, ertswhile, the only sound to be heard was the lazy dip of the oars gently propelling the boat onwards. Unfortunately, this habit of the Kittiwake was taken advantage of by shooters, who used to throw a dead bird in the air in order to attract any living ones which were passing by, and as they were shot others came to the scene, and so the slaughter went on.
In 1877 Kittiwakes were very numerous off Redcar, as also in 1882-3 ; 1884 ; in 1892 (all along the seaboard) ; and also in 1893. The migratory movements noted in connection with other species of Gulls may be observed in this also, and in north and north-east gales great flocks pass along shore to the north-west, whilst in east or south-east winds a southward passage takes place. On ist November 1888, many thousands were going south ; in October 1892, there was a great flight to the north-west ; while in October 1896, many were going south off Flamborough, and later, with a change of wind, they were observed to be moving northward.
In mid-February 1892, I noticed a vast assemblage of these birds about a mile out at sea off Redcar, the weather being calm and hazy ; on procuring a boat to ascertain the cause of this great congregation of Gulls, many were found to be floating on the sea, dipping their bills into the water, while others were flying overhead, every few moments dashing down to pick up some object from the surface ; two or three specimens were procured for examination, when it was dis- covered that their mouths were full of small crustaceans, with which the sea was literally alive.*
The Flamborough fishermen have told me that, when they are shooting their long lines, Kittiwakes sometimes seize the bait, and are dragged under water, striking examples of " the biter being bit." I have a note referring to an instance of one coming so close to a Redcar fishing-coble that one of the men caught the bird by one wing as it hovered near. Inland the Kittiwake is only an occasional straggler, but has been reported from various localities in the West Riding ; it has occurred rarely in some of the remote dales, and one was noted in April 1880, at Skipton, which flew against a chimney pot and broke its wing. In the East Riding it is very seldom observed away from the coast, and then only occasionally on flooded lands.
Yorkshire examples of variation in plumage are rare ; one was taken near Flamborough Headland on 23rd October 1886, the plumage of which was entirely white, with the exception of a little fawn colour on the wing coverts, with a deeper fawn where the black should be on the primaries. Another white specimen was obtained, also at Flamborough, by Thomas Leng, four or five miles south of the Headland, on I5th November 1887 ; it was nearly pure white, the outer margins of the primaries and the tips of the tail feathers being light drab colour. This bird was preserved by Mr. M. Bailey, The local names are various. The usual English appellation becomes Kitti-ake at Flamborough and Bempton, in the * Examples of these crustaceans were afterwards submitted to the Rev. Canon A. M. Norman, who determined them as Euthemisto compressa, a species new to British seas. (See Naturalist, June 1892, pp. 175-176.) same district being shortened to Kit, Kitty, or Kittie. Petrel is also an old name used at Flamborough and referred to by Pennant in 1770, while old residents in Flamborough and Bempton can remember when this term was in actual use. Annett is a name used in Graves's " Cleveland " (1808) ; and Pet-maw is a Redcar term. In the Humber district one of its names is Mackerel Gull, so called by the fishermen because of the young birds just appearing when these fish are approach- ing the coast. Tarrock is a name applied to the young.

PUFFIN.Fratercula arctica

Resident, nesting in large numbers on the Flamborough cliffs ; the latest of the rock-breeding fowl to arrive ; departs in mid-August, the majority retiring far out to sea. The first record of the Puffin, as a Yorkshire bird, is found in Willughby's " Ornithology," where it is described thus : " The Bird called Coulterneb at the Fame Isles .... at Scarborough, Mullet .... They breed yearly in great num- bers .... by the sea-side about Scarborough. . . . Mr. Fr. Jessop sent us one killed in the fresh waters not far from Sheffield in Yorkshire, much less than this we have described, which yet, I think, differed only in age, for all marks agreed." (Will. " Orn." 1676, p. 325.)
Thomas Allis, in 1844, referred to it as follows : Fratercula arctica. The Puffin Common at Flamborough. This grotesque looking bird is resident in Yorkshire, breeding in very large numbers on the Flamborough range of cliffs between the Headland and Raincliff, one of its two nesting stations on the east coast of England, and the only one on the mainland ; this is, doubtless, the situation Willughby referred to in his mention of the bird breeding " near Scarborough," It arrives at the summer quarters about mid-April, generally later than the other fowl ; nidification commences in May, and the solitary egg is deposited in a hole or crevice of the rocks, in a deserted rabbit burrow, or one scooped out by the bird itself where the soil is sufficiently friable for that purpose. If robbed of its first egg while fresh the Puffin lays again after a lapse of fourteen days, but if the egg should be much incubated it is doubtful whether a second is produced. The Yorkshire climbers do not as a rule take many Puffins' eggs, as they are difficult of access, and not greatly in demand by collectors, unless exceptional in the way of being heavily spotted or marked ; occasionally specimens with zones or bands of markings are brought up ; one with a broad zone of spots was found in June 1904. It may here be mentioned that the Puffin, when sitting on the rocks, does not invariably rest on the tarsus, but more often assumes an erect attitude, standing on its feet. The young is at first covered with blackish down on the back, the breast being light-coloured.
The old birds often take long journeys to sea in search of food, and are found many miles away from their homes, to which they return in straggling parties as night approaches. By the middle of August the young are on the water, and, at the end of the month, both they and their parents have bft the neighbourhood, and gone out to sea, and southward, for the majority are partly migratory, few being seen near the coast in winter. In the spring it approaches nearer to the shore, and during the prevalence of sea-storm . many are driven by stress of weather on to the beach in a starved and dying condition. I have seen individuals on the sands both in winter and spring, though very seldom during the former season ; in November 1878 several were picked up, and in the following March, during stormy weather, upwards of thirty were taken to a local bird-stuffer. In April and May 1887 numbers were found dead ; one on the I4th of the latter month had not resumed the horny plates on the bill indicative of the breeding garb ; in February 1890 many perished of starvation, while in April 1891 I noticed winter- plumaged birds.
Occasionally the Puffin strays up the Humber in autumn and winter, but I have not observed it in the Tees estuary. In various inland localities, remote from tidal waters, stragglers, probably storm- driven, have been reported ; amongst the places where it has been noted being Thirsk, Wetherby, Pocklington, Ackworth, Skelmanthorpe, Barnsley, Penistone, and at Ardsley one was killed against the telegraph wires in 1871. White and pied varieties are not unknown in Yorkshire. One almost entirely white, except for a few cinnamon-coloured feathers on the back, was found at Marske, and is now in the collection of Mr. E. B. Emerson of Tollesby Hall. A pure white specimen, and also a white one with normal wings, both obtained at Flamborough, are in the possession of Mr. J. Whitaker of Rain worth Lodge. Another white bird was reported at Bempton in 1902, and Mr. A. S. Hutchinson of Derby informs me he had one, sent from Scarborough in 1896, which had only one or two black feathers on the back, all the rest of the plumage being white.
Its local names are not numerous ; the term Mullet was stated by Willughby to be applied to it at Scarborough ; it is generally known as Parrot or Sea Parrot ; Flamborough Head Pilot is applied to it in the district indicated by this name, and Tommy Noddy was mentioned by J. Hogg to have been in use in the Teesmouth area in 1845, though I have never heard it.

LITTLE GREBE.Podicipes fluviatilis (Tunstall}.

Resident, generally distributed, and not uncommon. Also winter visitant, arriving in September and October. Probably the first reference to this, as a Yorkshire bird, is in the Allan MS. (1791) in connection with the Tunstall or Wy cliff e Museum, thus : " Little Grebe, Didapper, Dipper, Dabchick, Small Ducker. Frequents same places as other Grebes, even more common. Makes a large nest floating in the water, and lays 5 or 6 eggs. Always covers them when it leaves the nest. They eat fish, insects, and plants. Is an excellent diver " (Fox's " Synopsis," p. 91). Thomas Allis, in 1844, wrote : Podiceps minor. Little Grebe Common near Hebden Bridge and Doncaster ; occasionally met with near Halifax ; uncommon in the vicinity of Sheffield ; not uncommon about Barnsley and Huddersfield, where it stays through the year ; not infrequent near Leeds and York. A. Strickland says, " It is by no means uncommon in this county, and probably breeds in various parts of it, and it is often found ia winter."
The Little Grebe, or Dabchick, is resident, and the most numerous of the genus, being found in the breeding season in most parts of the county where there are secluded ponds, lakes, and streams which afford the concealment requisite for its nest ; it is known to breed at Malham Tarn at an elevation of 1,250 feet. An early allusion to its haunts in Wensleydale was made by W. G. Barker, who stated that "near East Witton, on the banks of the Yore, is a fish-pond where Dabchicks are plentiful" (" London's Magazine," 1832). From twelve to thirty of these birds have been observed on Hems- worth Dam in spring, before the reeds grew up ; in the East Riding many nest annually on the Drifneld streams, and in South Holderness it was formerly plentiful enough to have a local name.
In the autumn, from September to November, there is an influx of immigrants on the coast, sometimes in considerable numbers, and examples have been killed by striking against the Lighthouses on dark nights ; on i6th October 1891, during a south-west gale, one took refuge in Redcar Station, where it was captured by the Company's policeman, who brought it to me ; I have occasionally observed specimens in the Tees estuary, and, on 8th November 1905, I saw a party of seven on the sea off Redcar ; the species has also been noticed on migration in the Beverley district. There is but one example in breeding plumage reported on the coast ; this was caught near Redcar Pier in June.
An interesting account of the nidification habits of the Little Grebe is related by Mr. J. W. Dent of Ribston Hall, near Harrogate, who, in the spring of 1896, noted a pair on a pond near his house, which had a late brood in September, whilst in 1897 he found eggs as early as 3rd March. The birds, owing to disturbance, built no fewer than nine nests, four of which contained eggs. Mr. Riley Fortune tells me he has found several nests near Harrogate built on branches of trees which hung down to the water.
Local names : Dabchick (general), Didapper, Dipper, Small Ducker (Allan MS., 1791) ; Tom Pudding (North and West Ridings) ; Dobber (Zool. 1848, p. 2290) ; Tom Puffer and Tom Puffin, or Tom Poofin (North and East Ridings) ; Dipper Duck (Central Ryedale), Peep o' Day (East Cottingwith).

FULMAR. Fulmarus glacialis

Casual visitant in autumn and winter, rather rare inshore, but in some seasons plentiful on the fishing grounds. Has been occasionally met with in summer. Probably the earliest notice relating to the Yorkshire status of this bird is contained in Allis's Report, 1844, thus : Procellaria glacialis. Fulmar Petrel Reported by F. O. Morris as uncommon ; by W. Eddison to have been taken near Huddersfield ; by A. Strickland to be rare on the east coast.
To the Yorkshire deep-sea fishermen the Mollemoke, as it is called by them, is well known in the autumn herring season, when numbers of these birds beset the boats of the smacksmen to take their share of the fish when the nets are being hauled in ; so voracious are they at these times as to often allow themselves to be taken by hand on the decks of the smacks.
In November 1868 it was particularly numerous in the offing, as reported by the fishermen (ZooL 1869, pp. 1518-19), and off Flamborough in 1872 many were captured on the fishing grounds and brought in by the boatmen. On the coast, that is, near the shore, it is a casual visitant, chiefly in autumn and winter, and generally after storms at sea, when it is driven in by stress of weather, and found dead or in an exhausted state ; an opinion has been expressed that these are weak or diseased birds, the healthy ones keeping further out to sea, but this can hardly be so in every case, though I have no doubt that those seen on the beach in summer are suffering from some fatal disease. After the " Skua Gale " on I4th-i5th October 1879, several Fulmars were observed on various parts of the coast ; eleven were reported from Flamborough, and examples were picked up at Redcar and Teesmouth ; the autumn of 1887 was also noticeable for the comparative abundance of this bird after a storm on 28th October. It has been met with at most of the coast stations, though the instances of its occurrence are too numerous for mention in detail ; Flam- borough, Scarborough, and Redcar are the localities whence it has been most frequently recorded.
As stated above, the autumn and winter are the periods when the Fulmar is usually met with, though in the year 1869 one was found at Saltburn in the month of June, and I have on four occasions seen examples in summer : on ist July 1888 a specimen was washed ashore on Coatham sands ; on the 3ist of the same month in 1891 another occurred at Redcar ; on 25th May 1902 I found a splendid adult specimen on the beach east of Redcar, but, unfortunately, my taxidermist was unable to preserve it, and on 22nd June 1903 a very fine adult was picked up.
Mr. J. H. Gurney commented in the Naturalist (1879, p. 74) on the number of Yorkshire specimens he has examined (he had eleven in October 1879), an d on the discrepancy in their weights and the size of their bills ; the heaviest scaling 26oz., whilst the smallest weighed only i4oz. The white-breasted and the dark northern forms are both met with, and I have had specimens of each kind on the Cleveland coast. A Fulmar, taken on a hook at Filey on 26th October 1868, was found to have swallowed a Redwing (Zool. 1868, p. 1483). The example recorded from Flamborough, in October of the same year, was figured by Gould in his work on British Birds. The only vernacular name is Mollemoke or Mollemawk, which is probably derived from the Norwegian sailors, with whom Yorkshire fishermen formerly frequently associated.

CAPERCAILLIE. (Tetrao urugallus)

Formerly resident in the forests of north-west Yorkshire ; now extinct. Evidence is afforded of the former existence ot the Capercaillie in the discovery of bones amongst the remains in the Victoria Cave, near Settle. In one of the caves of Upper Teesdale, also, at an elevation of 1600 feet, numerous bones of this bird were found by Mr. James Backhouse, who tells me that the cave is situate in Durham County, about two miles from the nearest point of Yorkshire, but it is hardly conceivable that such a bird would adhere to one side of the vale, and not occasionally visit the other. Amongst these bones is one nearly perfect-humerus, belonging to a male bird of full size ; others, less perfect, to the female of ordinary size ; whilst others, again, are smaller than those of the type. Some appear to indicate a hybrid between this species and the Red Grouse. From the abundance of the remains, there can be no doubt that the Capercaillie was, in past ages, a common inhabitant of the forests of the north of England, and was taken into the caves as food, either by cave men or cave animals.
The only instance of its occurrence in the county, within historic times, was in the woods near Clapham, where a male example was procured by the late Mr. Foster, whose son, Mr. Wm. Foster of Stoke House, Tenbury, writing on 20th February 1904, informs me that, so far as he can ascertain, the bird was killed about the year 1830, and was preserved, but my informant does not remember what became of it. He is of opinion that it was not a bird which had been turned out in the neighbourhood of Clapham, and he adds that his father and the late James Farrar of Ingleborough were the only persons who shot in that part of the county at the period named (cf. Rev. E. Peake, Nat. 1896, p. 45). In connection with this note it is well to remember that the date is somewhat extraordinary, as this bird became extinct, even in Scotland, in the latter half of the eighteenth century, and was only re-introduced there in 1837.

COOT. (Fulica atra )

Resident, generally distributed, and common, except in manufactur- ing districts and the western fells, where it is not numerous. The earliest reference to the Coot in Yorkshire is, so far as is known, that in Graves's " History of Cleveland " (1808), where it is enumerated in the list of resident birds.
Thomas Allis, in 1844, wrote : Fulica atra. Common Coot Nearly extinct about Huddersfield ; not abundant near Sheffield ; occasionally seen near Leeds, at Killing- beck and Walton ; common about Barnsley, Doncaster, and York. The Coot is resident throughout most parts of the county, excepting in the manufacturing districts and on the high moorlands, though even on some of the latter it is not altogether absent. It breeds comraonly on the lakes, rivers, and meres in the low-lying parts of the East Riding, being particularly numerous on Hornsea Mere in Holderness. In the West Riding it is more local, and scarce in the neighbourhood of the large manufacturing towns, yet Talbot mentioned it as an abundant nester on the reservoirs near Wakefield, and he noted large numbers in February 1872 on that at Hiendley. It is described as resident, but not com- mon, on the " Carrs " of Doncaster ; in the Central Plain it nests sparingly on the rivers Nidd and Wharfe, and is fairly common on the lakes at Harewood and Allerton- Mauleverer. It is rather scarce on Fewston Reservoir, but on Malham Tarn is abundant and nests freely, also in Bowland district. Mr. J. Backhouse informs me that, in May 1895, he found a nest containing three eggs, at an altitude of 1,500 feet, at the back of Mickle Fell, in Lunedale.
In the North Riding it occurs on most of the large ponds and lakes, as at Gormire, Strensall, Pilmoor, Castle Howard, Newburgh Priory, Bedale, and Scarborough, as also in isolated cases on some of the slow running streams. In Wensleydale it breeds on Locker Tarn, at 1,010 feet elevation, and is a rare resident in Teesdale and at Sedbergh. In winter, especially during severe weather, when the fresh water is ice-bound, the Coot leaves its accustomed haunts and often appears in most unlikely places ; it is then frequently met with on tidal waters, particularly in the estuaries of the large rivers, and, though not usually classed as a migrant, has even been immolated by flying against the lanterns of the Light-stations on the coast. In the winter of 1901-02 several specimens, killed on the brackish " fleets " during the frost, were brought in to the Redcar taxidermists ;

COMMON CRANE. (Grus communis) (Bechstein).

Accidental visitant from northern Europe, of extremely rare occurrence. The former existence of this magnificent bird in the county of York is evidenced by items in the Bill of Fare at the great banquet given at Cawood in 1466, in honour of the Archbishop of York, where it is stated that there were " In Cranes, c.c. iiii." [204]. In the fifth Earl of Northumberland's Household Book, begun in 1512, the following entry occurs : " It is thought that Cranys muste be hadde at Crystynmas and other principall feestes for my Lordes owne Mees, so they be bought at xvjd. a pece," (equivalent to about eight shillings of the present currency), and at Che vet, near Wakefield, on the marriage of Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Neville, High Sheriff of Yorkshire, on I4th January 1526, in the iQth year of Henry VIII., it is set forth : " Second course, 2nd For a Standart. Cranes, two of a dish .... The expense of the week . . . Nine Cranes i los. ..."
In more modern times there is a record in Fothergill's " Orn. Brit." (1799, p. 7), of an example shot near York in 1797 ; whilst the only other county specimen was noted by the late J. Cordeaux in the Naturalist (1893, p. 203), where the recorder stated that he saw, at the house of a Flamborough fisherman, a Crane obtained by John Huddleston, farmer, Flamborough, from a field near his house, in the last week of February 1892. It had been set up by Jones of Bridlington, and was a young bird of the previous year ; it had feathers but no red patch on the crown, and the hind plumes were short. In the second edition of Mitchell's " Birds of Lancashire " (p. 206), Mr. R. J. Howard of Blackburn mentions the occur- rence of two birds of this species seen with the naked eye, and also through a glass, by Mr. R. Milne Redhead, F.L.S., of Bolton-by-Bowland, at 4 p.m. on 25th August 1884. They were flying in the direction of the Lancashire border, their course being WNW. to SSE. Mr. Milne Redhead is perfectly familiar with the appearance of the bird, having often seen it in Germany and other places on the Continent. (cV'Zool. 1884, p. 470.)
An example in the York Museum is labelled " Adult, Strickland Collection, probably local," but no further informa- tion concerning its origin is now obtainable. The place-name Cranswick (Cranes wick), near Driffield, probably had its origin in its associations with the Crane, the neighbourhood in former days being eminently suited to this bird's habits.

DOTTEREL. (Eudromias morinellus).

Bird of passage in spring and autumn ; very local and not common. Most frequent in spring on the coast, where it arrives in May, remaining for two or three weeks ; also observed on the high lands at the same period ; less abundant in autumn. The earliest mention of the Dotterel in Britain is contained in the Percy's " Northumberland Household Book," begun in 1512, at the Castles of " Wressill and Lekinfield," where this entry occurs : " Dottrells to be bought for my Lorde when they are in Season and to be at jd. a pece."
Thomas Allis, in 1844, wrote : Charadrius morinellus. The Dotterel Rare near Sheffield ; occa- sionally met with on the moorsjabout Halifax in spring and early summer. Wm. Eddison says it occasionally comes to breed on the Marsden and Slaithwaite Moors ; very rare near Leeds ; Arthur Strickland says "The Wolds near here [Bridlington] seem to be the ancient resort of this species previous to their retiring to the mountains in the west to breed. They appear in flocks in the spring and remain two or three weeks, and resort principally to the fallows and open districts ; formerly considerable numbers were killed at these times, but of late'their numbers have been so much reduced that but few are now met with, and that only by ranging the country on horseback very early in the morning before the ploughman is abroad." It is very rare near Barnsley, Dr. Farrar saying that he never obtained but one specimen, which was shot at Staincross in 1830. Naturalists cannot bit regret the great diminution in the numbers of Dotterel during the last half century, and although it was never an abundant nesting species with us, being, as it still is, chiefly known as a passing visitor in spring and autumn, it has a peculiar attraction to the ornithologist, who usually has to content himself with observing the " trips " on passage, and imagining the nesting economy. An early reference to this bird in Yorkshire is contained in the Allan MS. in connection with the Tunstall Museum, written in the year 1791, as follows : " They are stupid birds, easily enticed into a net. A dull person is proverbially called a Dotterel " (Fox's " Synopsis," p. 90).
As is generally known, the breast feathers of this bird were formerly, and are still, in great request by fly fishers, and such was the demand for them in comparatively recent times that, from the Holderness coast right up to the high grounds about Bempton and Speeton, the shooting of Dotterel was a regular occupation in spring: for some coast gunners and old shooters boast that in former days fifty years ago they have taken as many as fifty couple in a season. The destruction was carried on with equally disastrous effects on the Wolds, moors, and commons inland, where the ranks of the " foolish birds " were decimated to such an extent that as many as forty-two couple were secured in a single day on the Wolds of Canton, Sherburn, and Knapton. J. H. Anderson of Kilham, in the East Riding, stated (Rennie's " Field Naturalist," January 1834), 4( The Dotterel visit our large open fields every spring and autumn, and dire is the slaughter committed amongst them." It seems also, from St.ickland's communication to Allis, that considerable numbers were killed, but they had then (1844) been so much reduced that but few were met with. On the moors in the route travelled by the birds on their way to the north-west heavy toll was exacted ; Mr. J. H. Phillips remarked (Nat. 1890, p. 15), that about the middle of the past century numerous flocks were found on the Hambleton Hills ; between Dialstone Inn and South Woods he had put up hundreds on the moors ; on the Wensleydale moors it used to be sought regularly every year for feathers for anglers (op. cit. 1886, p. 186). Additional evidence of its former abundance (if such is required), on the spring passage over the Wolds and along the coast line in the district mentioned by Strickland, is afforded by the house named " Dotterel Inn " at Reighton, which was built by one of the Strickland family, and the sign painted by Mrs. Strickland. It is said in that district that the Inn was designed for the accommodation of gamekeepers, who came from all parts to the neighbourhood of Reighton and Hunmanby for the purpose of shooting Dotterel in the spring.
At the present time the bird is a fairly regular visitor, in limited numbers, to its old haunts, while on passage to and from its breeding places on the mountains of the north. On the vernal migration the earliest recorded date for its appearance is i8th February 1901, two being seen on that day at Kilnsea by the late G. W. Jalland, who informed me of the fact shortly afterwards. The usual time, however, is about the end of April or early in May, and at this season it is met with in small " trips " of from two to fifty in number ; the largest flock I have known at the Teesmouth was in May 1903, and comprised fully thirty birds, but on 6th May 1897, fifty were observed near the " Dotterel " Inn at Reighton. They return year by year to certain old-time haunts ; there is a field at Easington, near Spurn, where they have occurred from time immemorial, and fall an easy prey if a gunner appears ; they also visit the Wolds regularly, and well-known localities in the Reighton and Hunmanby districts, while at the Teesmouth a certain strip of short grass land is annually visited in May and September ; several other similar instances might be cited if necessary.

LAPWING.(Vanellus vulgaris)

Resident, generally distributed, common. In autumn and winter it congregates in the lowlands and on the coast, when its numbers are greatly augmented by an influx of immigrants from the Continent. Historically considered, the Lapwing in Yorkshire may claim ancestry of great antiquity ; Selby was of opinion that the " Egrittes," to the number of 1,000, served at the celebrated banquet to Archbishop Nevell in 1466, are refer- able to this species ; under the synonym of " Wype " it was mentioned in the Northumberland Household Book, 1512, where in the list of birds to be bought for " my Lordes owne mees " the price of " Wypes " was fixed at id., " so they be good and in season " ; while under the name of Bastard Plover it figured in " Wildfowl at Hull " in 1560, the price being stated at three-halfpence each.
Thomas Allis, in 1844, wrote : Vanellus cristatus. Common Lapwing Common in most districts. In addition to being a well-known and abundant resident, the Lapwing is a common migrant in autumn, when enormous flights arrive on the coast during October and November, these migrations sometimes continuing for several days in succession, and extending to as late as the last week of December, whilst on one or two occasions I have noticed large flocks crossing late in January. Great "rushes" occurred in 1881 in the month of November ; in 1887 there was a constant migration from mid-October to mid-November ; also in October 1890, in November 1899, and in 1901. On some days the passage continues from daylight to 3 p.m., the birds crossing incessantly in immense bodies ; a rough estimate of the numbers contained in one of these " rushes," in October 1899, was computed to be at the rate of 10,000 in a quarter of an hour. On arrival many of these new-comers settle on the lowlands near the coast, while others disperse inland, and in 1901 they were more numerous in the pastures and marshes near the seaboard than I have ever known them to be. Should mild weather prevail they continue to haunt these localities throughout winter, but depart southward if frost and snow ensue, and during conditions of this nature there was a decided southerly movement in February and early March 1904. The bulk of the winter visitants depart in late March or April on their return migration ; on 23rd and 24th March 1895 I observed a passage of oversea migrants, and these would, doubtless, be birds returning northward. In this connection an interesting entry is found in the " Annual Register" for 1799, where it is stated that, on the 4th of April in that year, hundreds of Plovers and Lapwings were cast on shore on the Holderness coast in a dreadful storm.
When crossing against a west or south-west gale these migrant Lapwings fly low, hugging the surface of the water in a compact body, but as they approach the land they gradually rise high in the air and assume an open and scattered formation, in this manner passing over the " danger zone " commanded by coast gunners and wildfowlers. On dark and foggy nights numbers of these birds fall victims to the attractions of the coast beacons.* As a nesting species the Lapwing is generally and widely diffused, being found in all suitable localities from the marshes and coast lands up to the highest elevation on the fells and moorlands of Cleveland and the north-west of the county. It was very abundant in the Doncaster Carrs until the middle of the past century, but has been driven away from its haunts in that district by drainage and high cultivation, while it is to be feared that the practice of collecting the eggs for sale is rapidly reducing the numbers of our native stock. The resident birds usually repair to their nesting haunts towards the close of February or March, and at the end of the latter month, in mild seasons, eggs are sometimes met with; but, as a general rule, they are not found before April ; in the first week of that month I have seen full clutches at the Teesmouth, though they are a week or two later on the high fells, where, in late seasons, they are occasionally covered with snow ; in a severe storm in May 1891, near Harrogate, the Lapwings flew high above the snow-clouds ; when the fall ceased they returned to their breeding quarters, but were unable, on the snow-covered ground, to find their nests (Nat. 1891, pp. 165, 214). Variations of plumage are not unknown ; one at Oswald- kirk had the wings and upper part of the back light brown * It may be mentioned here that an interesting and concise history of the migration of this species is published by Mr. W. Eagle Clarke in the Report of the British Association for 1902.

AVOCET. (Recurvirostris avocetta)

Accidental visitant from the European Continent, of extremely rare occurrence. The first reliable mention of the Avocet, as a Yorkshire species, is apparently that referred to in Thomas Allis's Report, thus : Recurvirostra avosetta. The Avoset. H. Chapman had two, killed on Skipwith Common, near Selby, about twenty years since, one of which is now in the Museum of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society ; F, O. Morris says several have been shot on the Humber and on other parts of the coast. A. Strickland has known several near the Spurn Lighthouse in spring some years ago, but he has heard of no recent instance. This singular looking bird was formerly not uncommon in Yorkshire, when the mud banks of the Humber and the adjacent marshes and Carrs of the East Riding afforded a congenial environment to birds of this class ; the same causes, however, which conduced to the extirpation of other rare species have driven it from its former haunts, and it is now but an accidental straggler from Continental Europe.
The latest known instance of the Avocet nesting in Britain was at the mouth of the Trent, about the year 1837, Hugh Reid of Doncaster informed A. G. More, in a letter dated ist June 1861, that eggs were taken on a sand island at the mouth of the river Trent about twenty-four years before. There was at the time a spring tide, which nearly covered the island, and the eggs were floating on the water. The man who took them shot one of the parent birds at the same time and brought the eggs to Mr. Reid. The island had patches of grass growing on it, and there was always mud and warp about it a likely place for the bird to feed on. The county boundary being at this place drawn in the centre of the River Trent, Yorkshire will share with Lincoln- shire the honour of possessing the last British breeding station of the Avocet. The recorded and communicated notices of its occurrence during the past century are as follows : Two on Skipwith Common, about 1824 (Allis). At Spurn Point several were obtained before 1844, accord- ing to Allis's friend and correspondent, Arthur Strickland. In 1827-28 one, as recorded by J. Hogg (Zool. 1845, p. 1172), at the Teesmouth ; a locality whence Mr. J. H. Gurney reported it (op. cit. 1876, p. 4765) as having occurred two or three times, one of which was probably referable to an indi- vidual from the Teesmouth in the spring of 1849, formerly in the collection of the late J. Duff of Bishop Auckland^ and recorded by him (op. cit. 1849, p. 2591). This specimen was sold at the dispersal of Mr. Duff's effects in 1901, but was in such a moth-eaten state as to be useless.
Another example, which may have been in Mr. Gurney's list, was killed by a Stockton gunner, in the Tees, about 1870, but was rendered worthless for preservation. An adult specimen, talcen about 1865, at Scarborough, is now in the York Museum. Another adult, a male, was purchased at the sale of Mr. Hall's Scorborough collection, and is supposed to be a local specimen. It is now in the Hull Museum. And the most recent record of its appearance was near the Flamborough Lighthouse, where two were seen for several days in April 1893 ; one was procured by Mr. Coates of the Lighthouse Farm, and was stuffed for him by Mr. M. Bailey ; the other, which is in the collection of Mr. Forster of Bridling- ton, was killed on i6th April, at Marton Lodge, near the latter town. I have had an opportunity of examining both these specimens in the possession of their respective owners, (cf. Nat. 1893, p. 171.)

CASPIAN TERN. Sterna caspia (Pallas).

Accidental visitant from the shores of Continental Europe and Africa, of extremely rare occurrence. This handsome bird,. the largest of the British Terns, is an inhabitant of the Mediterranean coasts, and nests by the Black and Caspian Seas, while colonies exist on the coasts of Sweden and Denmark. I found it fairly plentiful in the spring of 1889 on Menzaleh Lake, Upper Egypt, flying in small flocks, and also feeding near the edge of the lake ; both adult and immature birds of the previous year were fishing in company.
Its claim to rank as a Yorkshire species rests on the occur- rence of one example at Filey, which was recorded by the possessor of the specimen, in the Field (i5th November 1879), as follows : " The Caspian Tern .... was shot at Filey by a friend early in September 1874, and was sent by him to Baker of Cambridge, to mount for me. Although I have seen the bird there, I have not yet obtained possession of it, but it was, I believe, seen by Professor Newton at Baker's, so that there can be no doubt as to its identity." (R. A. Willis, Franklands, Addleston.)*

LITTLE TERN. Sterna minuta (L.).

Summer visitant ; breeds at Spurn ; very rare inland. Perhaps the earliest Yorkshire reference to this species is that made by Tunstall, thus : " The Lesser Tern Sterna minuta (Linn and Gm.). Common, and frequents sea-coasts, unable to bear the inclemency of winter on our coasts, but returns in spring." (Tunst. MS, 1784, p. 94.)
Thomas Allis, 1844, wrote : Sterna minuta. Lesser Tern Is met with near Huddersfield ; near Sheffield two individuals have been shot in Ecclesfield Dam ; not infrequently obtained near Barnsley. A. Strickland says, " Though this breeds to the north of us it is certainly one of the least frequent about here, though I have known it killed." This graceful little bird, the smallest of the Terns, is a summer visitant to the south-eastern extremity of the county, Spurn Point, where a considerable nesting colony has been in existence for many years. The main body generally arrives in May, although individuals are sometimes seen earlier, as on 5th April 1886 (Eighth Migration Report), I5th April 1885, and I4th April 1893. An account of a visit to Spurn during the last week of May 1861, states that the nesting site was on the seaward side of the sandy neck of land that connects Spurn Lighthouse with the coast, and about half a mile from the point. From forty to fifty pairs of birds were noticed, and the nests were, as in other colonies, in close proximity and within a few yards of high water mark. They never breed on the Humber side of the neck, although the distance across is only about a hundred yards (Dobree, Zool. 1861, p. 7648). The colony afterwards extended its limits, and now includes nearly the whole of the strip of shingle from the point mentioned by Mr. Dobree to opposite the warren. The nests were mercilessly plundered by egg collectors and excursionists, but in the year 1895 an effort was made by the County Council, under the powers of the Wild Birds Protection Act of 1894, to save the birds from molestation. Spurn was declared a protected area, a watcher was appointed, and although a certain amount of " egging " cannot altogether be prevented, it is satisfactory to know that the only Yorkshire colony of Terns is now increasing in numbers (in 1900 about a hundred pairs of young were hatched), and the protection is continued (see Cordeaux and Boyes, op. cit. 1868, '69, '70, '71 ; Field, 6th April 1895 ; and Nat. 1900, p. 321). Writing in the Zoologist (1845, p. 1187), J. Hogg referred to the Lesser Tern as " inhabiting in summer the sandy beach near the Teesmouth," but whether it is to be inferred from this that it nested there is not clear.
On the coast north of Spurn the Little Tern occasionally occurs in spring and autumn at Flamborough, Scarborough, Whitby, and Staithes ; and both adult and young birds annually visit the estuary of the Tees late in summer and autumn. It usually appears in August, although on 29th July 1878, I saw ten, three of which were procured ; in 1884 two were obtained on I2th July ; and on 3Oth July 1905 a large flock, comprising two or three hundred individuals, was reported at the Teesmouth. The majority leave early in September, stragglers occasionally remaining later ; three immature birds were observed on 25th September 1901, and two on the I7th of the same month in the year following. It has been noted at Spurn as late as the second week in October, whilst at Flamborough I examined a specimen on i5th October 1903. The only spring occurrence at Redcar was in 1882, when an individual was picked up on the sands on i8th May. The Little Tern is a very scarce species inland, but has been recorded from Sheffield and Huddersfield ; it occurs regu- larly on the reservoirs near Wakefield in spring and autumn ; one was taken at Selby about 1862 ; another at Blackley in 1875 ; it was noted for Wensleydale by Barker ; and at Acaster one was shot in 1869, and exhibited at a meeting of the York Naturalists' Club.

GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. (Colymbus glacialis)

Winter visitant, regular, but not common, on the coast ; also occurs inland, though rarely. Arrives in September, leaves in April or May Probably the earliest evidence of the connection of this bird with Yorkshire is that in Willughby's " Ornithology," under the title of " The Greatest Speckled Diver or Loon Colymbus maximus caudatus. I have seen four of them .... One in Yorkshire at Dr. Henley's, shot near Cawood." And under the title of " Gesner's Greatest Doucker," the following appears : Mr. Johnson [of Brignall, near Greta Bridge], in his papers sent us, writes that he hath seen a bird of this kind, without any spots on its Back or wings, but yet thinks it not to differ specifically but accidentally." (Will. 11 Orn." 1678, pp. 34I-2-) Thomas Allis, in 1844, wrote : Colymbus glaciahs. Great Northern Diver Dr. Farrar, F. O. Morris, and H. Reid all report a splendid specimen which was taken alive in an exhausted state at Cannon Hall, and is in the possession of S. Stanhope, Esq., of that place ; my friend, Bartholomew Smith of Thirsk, informs me that a specimen was taken at Gormire ; it has been obtained in beautiful plumage off Whitby. and I have had a young specimen from near Sutton-on-Derwent. A. Strickland remarks : " The Northern Diver, Black-throated Diver, and Red-throated Diver are all northern birds which are only known on this coast in autumn or winter, when out of mature plumage, but may frequently be met with at those times on various parts of the coast ; the Red-throated or the Speckled Diver is the most frequent, but the Black-throated, which is the least common, seems to be a more inland bird, and in the severe winter of 1830 many were killed, and some toward the spring assuming the mature colours."
A truly pelagic bird, this fine species is a not uncommon autumn and winter visitant on the coast, appearing sometimes as early as August, though not as a rule until September or October, and remaining until the following spring. In the Humber district, according to the late J. Cordeaux, it is occasionally found in summer, but at the Teesmouth I have only once noted it at that season, viz., in July 1877. In the fall of the year individuals in the immature dress are annually met with, though it is seldom obtained in the adult stage. On inland lakes and reservoirs the Great Northern Diver is of rare occurrence, and, in addition to the examples cited by Allis, it has been recorded at Newton Kyme, where the late Rev. J. W. Chaloner saw three on the Wharfe in 1818 or 1819 ; one was captured alive in central Ryedale in 1852, and another at Masham " many years ago." It has occurred on the river Hull near Beverley, and on Howden Mere ; at Goole ; at Cold Hiendley Reservoir in December 1875 ; at Banks Hall, near Staincross ; on Blackstone Edge Reservoir ; Slingsby ; Birdforth, near Thirsk, where one was killed on the ice during a storm in January 1887 ; on Fewston Reservoir in 1888 ; near Wakefield in March 1888, and October 1890, on the last occasion a male, in partial summer plumage, being obtained.
Generally speaking this bird is of solitary habits, but occasionally two are seen together, as on 4th December 1877, at West Scar Head, Redcar ; again on i6th March 1892, I watched through a telescope a couple feeding near the shore ; and in November 1893 two were near my boat inside the Redcar rocks. The marvellous rapidity with which this bird can swim and dive under water has frequently been commented upon ; I have known one remain under the surface, after diving, and not re-appear until it had traversed a distance of at least half a mile, whilst in swimming it can easily out- distance a pair-oared boat. A specimen that I had alive for some time, when placed in the water, gave utterance to a mournful, not unmusical, cry.
The average weight of a Northern Diver is stated to be between nine and ten pounds ; the heaviest I have note of is a female example, obtained at the Teesmouth in November 1886, which weighed twelve pounds.

GANNET. (Sula bassana).

Bird of passage on the coast. Has occasionally occurred inland as a straggler. The first mention of the Gannet in Yorkshire appears to refer to the specimen taken near Halifax in 1831, and noticed by Thomas Allis in his Report in 1884, thus : Sula bassana. Ganuet Occurs at Flamborough and Scarborough ; it has been taken at Thorne, also one near Doncaster ; they are picked up on the Wolds and sea borders every now and then when gorged with food ; one has been taken near Huddersfield ; near Halifax it has been taken alive in Booth Deane, October 1831 ; on Norland Moor. December 6th 1844, and a young specimen on Illingworth Moor, Sep- tember 2ist 1836 ; a first year's bird of this species fell exhausted on Staincross Moor, near Barnsley, which passed into the hands of Dn Farrar, who forwarded it to the aviary at Wentworth House, where it lived many months and at last, as he says, had the supreme pleasure of dying of repletion, the result of an experiment to test its powers in that accomplishment ; a few years since a specimen was sent to Henry Chapman of York, which had been picked up dead a few miles from the coast ; in descending on its prey (a garfish), in its accustomed and well-known manner, the sharp upper mandible of the fish passed obliquely through the eye and entered the brain through the optic nerve ; the end of the mandible had broken off and caused the death of the bird. A. Strickland says that after the breeding season, and when the herring sprats and other fish are numerous, these birds are generally found on the coast, and occasionally later in the winter.
The Gannet cannot with accuracy be termed a resident, though it is seldom absent from some part of the sea off Yorkshire, and it is perhaps best described as a periodical visitant to the coast on its passage to and from its northern breeding stations, being most abundant in autumn, when old and young birds, the latter predominating, may be seen diligently employed amongst the herrings and other fish. As a rule a few appear soon after the nesting season in early August, whilst in September and October they are often quite numerous in the neighbourhood of the herring shoals, some- times inshore, and at others several miles away in the offing, especially near Flamborough Head, where large numbers have frequently been noticed, and they were particularly abundant in October 1895. In the late autumn it would appear that the Gannets which are then off the coast keep far out at sea, as they are only observed when driven in by gales. During the prevalence of a storm on I2th-i3th November 1901, several adults were found on Redcar beach and in the Tees estuary, and an immature bird was caught asleep during a " north-easter " on 25th November 1904. I have rarely noted it in winter ; one occurred at Redcar in December 1874, and in January 1876 three adults were killed, one being stunned with an oar ; on 2nd January 1894 twenty or thirty were seen flying up and down the Humber side at Spurn.
In spring the old birds return northward along the coast on their way to their nesting quarters, and come under observa- tion in April and May ; a singular and unaccountable return movement was noticed off. Redcar on I2th April 1887, many pairs being seen flying south. In some seasons mature examples are found washed in by the tide, having apparently died from the effects of a disease, which at this period attacks many pelagic species. In the summer of 1895 seven Gannets were captured in a weak and dying condition, the taxidermist who preserved them discovering the bones to be quite soft and crumbly. This species is sometimes driven by stormy weather to inland localities, and has been met with in most parts of the county, on reservoirs, lakes, and the most remote fells and moorlands. It would be tedious to recapitulate all these instances, but one may be mentioned, on 22nd April 1838, after a two days' hurricane from the north-east, when an adult specimen was picked up on Swainby Moor, in Cleveland, which had evidently been blown in by the gale and flown, blinded, as long as strength lasted. When found it was scarcely stiff, and had about 2j in. of the beak of a garfish forced into one eye, leaving only J in. visible. It was taken to the Rev. G. J. Marwood of Busby, who had it preserved, and the eye and piece of garfish beak preserved in spirits.* The present keeper at Swainby, Thomas Whitwell, captured a Gannet on the same moor in 1900.
The method of fishing adopted by the Gannet is too well known to need any description here, though it may be of interest to mention that, in the autumn of 1905, I was witness of a departure from the bird's ordinary habit. On the 1st September an immature Gannet flew past Redcar Pier head and settled on the water about two hundred yards away ; it then dived from the surface in the same manner as a Cormorant or Red-throated Diver. With the aid of powerful binoculars I saw it twice repeat this process, on one occasion bringing up a fish, or food of some kind, which it swallowed ; after the * This is the specimen referred to in Allis's Report. lapse of two or three minutes it rose and flew out beyond the rocks, where it continued its fishing as before. A story is related at Flamborough of a narrow escape the late Thomas Leng, a well-known seabird shooter, had from serious injury, if not death itself. While off at sea he shot a Gannet, and, without lowering his gun, turned to fire the second barrel at another bird. The first one was already falling, and its pointed beak pierced the brim of Leng's " sou- wester," knocking him down into the bottom of the boat. Leng used to say this was the "closest shave" he ever had. The local names are Solan Goose, Gant, and Mackerel Gant.

COMMON GUILLEMOT. (Lomvia troile.)

Resident, breeding in vast numbers on the cliffs of the Flamborough and Bempton range ; arrives there in March and April, and leaves with its young in August. Many remain off the coast throughout winter. The first notice of the Guillemot in Yorkshire was by Willughby, who stated that " In Yorkshire, about Scarborough it is called a Skout .... moreover this bird frequents and builds on .... the cliffs about Scarborough in the summer months .... Mr. Johnson [of Brignall] hath observed these birds to vary somewhat in colour, some having black backs, some brown or gray ; perchance these may be Hens, those Cocks " (Will. " Orn." 1678, pp. 324-5).
Thomas Allis, in 1844, referred to it thus : Una troile. Common Guillemot Common on the coast. A. Strick- land says they breed in countless numbers on the Flamborough cliffs. The most remarkable and interesting feature of the stupendous range of cliffs extending from the Headland of Flamborough westward to Speeton, a distance of five or six miles, and varying in height from 250 feet to 350 feet, is the great " loomery ' or breeding station of the Guillemot, a species that is found there in the nesting season in such vast quantities as to be practically innumerable. It may be termed a resident of Yorkshire, spending most of the year on the open sea off the coast, and returning for short visits to the cliffs about Christmas or early in January, and, in some seasons, not till February ; in 1901 it did not put in an appearance until the nth of the latter month. These visits become more frequent, and of longer duration, as spring advances, generally taking place at high water and in calm weather, when, at times, the birds congregate as thickly on some of the ledges as in summer, but are quiet id undemonstrative. On I2th March 1900 there were lousands at Buckton Cliffs, where they were clustering like is on the breeding ledges, and were in full summer plumage.
Towards the end of April they take up their quarters for the season, the first eggs being laid in May ; the earliest that the cliff-climbers have known were seen on the 6th. Some years ago they were common by the second week, though the usual period is about the third week in the month. By the middle or end of August most of the Guillemots have left the cliffs and dispersed over the sea along the coast, where they are found in more or less abundance during the remainder of the year. Although this species is more a wanderer than a migrant, there can be no doubt that a partial migration takes place, many of our Yorkshire birds probably going further south, whilst their places are taken by others from northern stations. On 22nd August 1881, great numbers of young Guillemots were noticed off the Humber ; and, when at sea off Redcar in the autumn, I have frequently seen flocks passing for days continuously, to the south-east, in small parties of from three or four to twenty. In winter storms many are cast ashore, and occasionally they are driven inland, being reported from localities far removed from salt water. In the " Correspondence of Dr. Richardson of North Bierley " (p. 212), is an interesting remark, contained in a letter to Dr. Sherard, and dated " 7th January 1724-25," as follows : " About the middle of last March was brought me Lommia hoieri, called at Flamborough Head (about two miles from Burlington), Whillocks, where they breed in great quantities. This bird was found alive [on a moor] four miles from hence, and fifty miles from the sea : it was brought hither alive, very brisk, and in good feather."
The practice of climbing, or " climming " as the local term goes, for sea-fowl' eggs, as carried out on the Yorkshire cliffs, has often been described, though not always with strict accuracy ; some particulars of this interesting and daring pursuit, which I have many times taken part in, may be accept- able, and, with the aid of illustrations, I hope to make it per- fectly clear. The right of gathering the eggs belongs to the farmers tenanting the adjacent lands, and this privilege is con- ceded to the men who work for them when egging is out of season. * 'climming" is a very ancient institution, having been in vogue for upwards of two hundred years, while one family at Buckton can boast of four generations who have followed this profession, viz. : William Hodgson ; his son Grindale, who died at the age of eighty about the year 1864 ; Edward, son of the last named, who climbed for upwards of thirty years ; and, lastly, John, son of Edward, who has been a " dimmer " since about the year 1885. Seventy to eighty years ago, that is, about 1825 to 1830, there were four gangs, led respectively by Aaron Leppington of Buckton ; old George Londesborough, or " Lowney," of Bempton ; Grindale Hodg- son, and Fox. Old Ned Hodgson can recollect when, some fifty years ago, only two gangs of climbers went out at the Bempton, Buckton, and Speeton cliffs, who divided the ground between them ; one of these was captained by George Londesborough, and the other by Grindale Hodgson. The gangs consisted of two men only, one to climb and the other to manage the ropes ; as a boy, Ned Hodgson used to be taken to help his father in coiling up the ropes and to assist in hauling up, while sometimes the men's wives were requisitioned to give a helping hand. A few years later three in a gang went out, but dangerous places were not " dumb." The cliffs at or near to Flamborough were worked by the fishermen, and, at the period referred to, the birds bred abundantly from the Headland westward, while in little bays, now entirely deserted, there was then a large avian population, as is exemplified by a spot near Thornwick called " Chatter Trove," from the noise the birds are said to have made. Many other portions of these cliffs have appellations derived from some incident connected with the bird-life, and handed down from father to son, e.g., " Bird's Shoot," " Hateley (Hartley) Shoot," " White-wings," where for some years, up to 1897, a white-winged Guillemot used to fly out ; " White Breadloaf," so called from a man asking Ned Hodgson's help, who replied, " Whatever's on that spot you shall have " ; the eggs were given to the man, who purchased with the proceeds of their sale the first loaf of white bread he had eaten for months ; " Broken Head " ; " Fox's Broken Arm," where accidents occurred ; " Jubilee Corner," first climbed in the late Queen's Jubilee year ; while the name of " Seven Score Place " perpetuates the memory of the largest number of eggs taken at one climb by George Londesborough.
Then ensued the time when the poor birds were ruthlessly shot down in the breeding season by tourists and gunners, who often did not trouble to pick up the dead or wounded, while the young were left to perish on the ledges ; at this time, Hodgson declares, climbing did not pay, and was almost discontinued for some years. It was chiefly owing to the indignation aroused by this wanton destruction that the " Sea-birds Preservation Act " was passed, and, as the birds afterwards increased under protection, the egg gathering was resumed. On the Bempton, Buckton, and Speeton cliffs there are now four gangs of " climmers," each having an apportioned part, beyond which they must not trespass ; four men constitute the gang, viz., the " dimmer," and three top men. The ground from Danes' Dyke for about a mile and a half westward to Bartlett Nab (excepting one field at Bempton Lane-end), is climbed by Henry Marr's party (until 1902 the leadership of this gang was shared by the late George Wilkinson). The second portion is worked by William Wilkinson and his mates, who climb as far as Buckton Lordship, about half a mile, and they also have the Bempton Lane-end field ; then William Chandler has Mainprize cliff r and a small part beyond ; whilst the Hodgsons climb the Buckton end to Raincliff , comprising a stretch of about three- quarters of a mile in length.
Within the past two or three years a few Guillemots have taken up their quarters on the Gristhorpe Cliff, near Scarborough, but are not sufficiently numerous to repay the labour of climbing. At Flamborough, where the birds had become scarce, the fishermen climbed irregularly and inter- mittently until the year 1903, when a gang led by E. Major commenced to climb more methodically. The ropes used are of strong stout hemp, 300 feet in length, and are renewed about every second year. In wet weather little climbing can be done as the ropes become slippery, or " greasy " as it is called, and difficult to work.
We will in imagination accompany a party of " climmers " on a fine morning, and, having arrived " at cliff," find all in readiness for the descent. The " dimmer " dons what are locally called the " breeches," an arrangement consisting of two broad loops of flat rope with a belt attached, which is securely buckled around his waist, and to the front of the belt is fastened the "body" or "waist" rope. His hat is thickly padded to protect his head from falling stones, and on the arm which uses the guide-rope he wears a leather sheave, termed a " hand-leather " ; his boots have toe-plates with edges turned down like a horse's shoe to enable him to walk on the slippery ledges ; over each shoulder is slung a stout canvas bag ; and a long stick, with a hook fixed at one end, for the purpose of raking eggs out of crevices and crannies, completes his outfit. A hand, or guide rope is made fast to an iron stake driven firmly into the ground, and the slack is thrown over the cliff. One of the men, the " lowerer," then sits on the edge of the cliff, with his feet planted in two holes purposely made to prevent his slipping ; he wears a leather belt, or saddle, round which the waist rope is passed and held with both hands resting on his thighs ; both men gather bunches of grass in order to protect their hands from being blistered or scored by the ropes when running freely, and to enable them to secure a better grip when hauling. The " dimmer " now takes the guide-rope in his right hand, and in the other an iron stake having a running pulley at the top ; walking backward he fixes the stake on the extreme edge (or, when the cliff is much broken, two pulleys are used), and lays the waist rope over the wheel ; this prevents it chafing on the sharp rock edges ; the lowerer then slacks away, and the adventurous " dimmer " swiftly descends on the face of the cliff, by a succession of backward jumps, keeping his feet to the rock and inclining his body outward. He sometimes in this manner descends a hundred feet without stopping. On arriving at a ledge where eggs are visible he rapidly transfers them to the bags he carries, then kicks himself free from the ledge, throwing his weight on the rope, and so is lowered to other places, where he repeats the operation, clearing off all the eggs he can find. The expedients a practised " dimmer " resorts to in negotiating dangerous places and corners are very ingenious ; sometimes he creeps along a ledge for some distance, and, to save the trouble of returning by the same way, swings off again into mid-air ; in order to get round a projecting corner he throws the slack of the waist-rope round and then launches himself off, so swinging to the spot he desires to reach.
In some parts of the cliff iron pegs are driven into the rock, round which the " dimmer " winds the hand-rope to assist him in his work, and at Jubilee corner, where the crag overhangs considerably, three wire ropes are permanently fastened, by means of which the inner shelves, otherwise inaccessible, are reached. I have seen William Wilkinson, at a depth of more than two hundred feet, stop and fasten the rope to a holdfast in the cliff side, and from there lower himself to the recesses of a cave almost within stone's throw of the beach ; indeed, the gymnastic performances of an expert egg-gatherer are as clever as those of many a first-class trapeze artist. A regular code of signals is arranged, by which the man below can telegraph his wishes to the top-man, thus : a single tug at the waist-rope signifies that the " dimmer " is ready to ascend ; the laconic command " Up " is uttered, and all three of the top party, seated in a row behind each other, their feet firmly planted in holes, haul up their comrade from below. Two tugs mean " more hand or guide rope wanted " ; three tugs, " less hand rope " ; and these orders are executed accordingly ; but by long experi- ence the men have become so much accustomed to each other's ways that the lowerer seems to know intuitively what his mate wants, and instinctively holds or lowers, while the unsophisticated bystander naturally is lost in wonderment at the facility with which he seems to anticipate the other's wishes. When the " dimmer " gives the signal to haul up he keeps kicking himself clear of the rock until he reaches a part where he can ease the labours of his companions by walking on the face of the cliff, reminding one of a fly on a window pane, and on reaching the top he picks up the iron stake at the edge, and so to the grassy flat where his spoils are emptied into large market baskets.
The other men meanwhile coil up the ropes and prepare for a move to the next spot. The day's work commences at seven o'clock, and, on an average, about thirty descents are made ; at the end of the day the eggs are all pooled and shared out, each man taking six or eight, the ' 'dimmer " as his perquisite being entitled to first pick each time. The Flamborough gang usually lower a young man instead of a " grown-up." The work is so arranged that the whole ground shall be cleared bi-weekly, each portion being climbed every third day, thus ensuring a constant supply of fresh eggs ; in wet weather it so happens, however, that it is impossible to work, in this case the eggs become partly incubated and are spoilt for edible purposes ; they are therefore gathered and blown for specimens, and the birds are thereby induced to lay again. When any portion of the cliffs is " dumb out," and becomes " poor," it is fallowed for two years or until it recovers, and is then again visited. In fine weather the Guillemots often drop their eggs in the sea, and it is no uncommon occurrence for specimens to be found in crab-pots and trawling nets. Egg-climbing in the " sixties " and " seventies " commenced on I2th May, but is now a week or ten days later ; it ends the first week in July, or in a backward season it may be extended for a few days ; I have known it prolonged until the I3th, but in the year 1904 a movement was started to induce the men to cease operations on 1st July. The average daily take of each gang is from 300 to 400, the grand total approximating 130,000. As many as 1,400 eggs have been collected by one party in a single day ; old Londesborough on one occasion took 1,700 after stormy weather had prevented him getting down the cliffs for several days, and a few years ago George Wilkinson and Henry Marr gathered 600 from two spots between six and eight o'clock. The first laying is, as a rule, the most productive, after which there is a slack time ; then ensues the midsummer " shut " or " flush," and after another slack interval, there is a third " flush " ; the numbers then gradually decrease again towards the end of June. It may be here observed that there are many dangerous parts which are never climbed, and in these places the birds hatch out their first eggs without interference, and so a constant supply of young blood is ensured. The climbers say the Guillemot does not lay until the second year, their reasons for this assertion being based on the observations made with reference to fallowed spots which, if rested for one year, do not improve, but in two years the young birds have matured, and add their eggs to the general stock.
Accidents during the pursuit of egg-climbing rarely occur : one or two instances are known of the men having been damaged by pieces of falling rock, and this happened to Fox, whose arm was broken ; also to old Londesborough and William Wilkinson, each of whom had an arm severely torn. A few years ago I was present when two of the men narrowly escaped shocking deaths ; I had requested the " dimmer " to procure me some Kittiwake's eggs, and he commenced his descent at a place where there were no foot holes for the lowerer, who, to my horror, began to slide towards the edge, being dragged by the weight of the man below ; the other two top men were some distance away ; I was on a point of the cliff a hundred yards off, and it seemed as though nothing could avert a frightful catastrophe, when, fortunately, Mr. John Morley, a Scarborough naturalist, who chanced to be near, rushed to the rescue and clasped the man by the shoulders, holding him until assistance arrived. The " dimmer " has since told me he knew perfectly well what had happened " top o* cliff," and he had just reached a ledge where he could stand when the sickening sensation of falling stopped. Visitors are sometimes allowed to make the descent of the cliffs, and, if space had permitted, many amusing stories might be related in connection with their experiences. I have been told by a quondam climber that, when he was assisting his father, who used to climb at Flam- borough, in the " seventies," soon after the Franco-German war, they received a visit from three foreign gentlemen staying at the Thornwick Hotel, the youngest of whom requested to be allowed to take some eggs ; he was accordingly lowered, and succeeded in bringing up five specimens, which he appeared to be highly delighted. The strangers visited the climbers each day for a week, helping them in their work, and it was not until they had departed that it was discovered the young visitor who had gone " ower cliff " was the Prince Imperial of France.
If the first egg is taken a second is produced, and, frequently but not invariably, a third, the intervals between the first and second layings being, on an average, fourteen days if the egg is fresh, but, in the event of it being slightly incubated, the time is extended to eighteen or twenty days, and, if much incubated, to twenty-four days. In the case of a female becoming " clocky " over both the first and second egg it is probable that she does not lay a third that season. I have been informed by an old Flamborough climber that he once found in a sitting bird an egg ready for extrusion and three others in a well developed state. Notwithstanding the enormous quantities of eggs taken annually the climbers declare that there is no diminution in the number of birds, and my observations certainly lead me to believe this to be the case. In 1834, when Charles Waterton visited Flamborough, the common eggs were sold at sixpence per score ; the price is now twelve to sixteen for a shilling, and these are eaten by the villagers, or are sent to one of the large Yorkshire towns for use in the manufacture of patent leather, while the well marked specimens are set aside for collectors. Flamborough, or strictly speaking, Bempton, eggs are celebrated amongst oologists for their remarkable beauty and variety, though some twenty-five years ago, when collectors were few, common eggs were sold at three a penny, and twopence was considered a good price for a special example. The competition for good specimens is now very keen, prices having accordingly advanced until as much as 5/-, 7/6, and even half a sovereign is now paid for " real fancy eggs," as the men call them.* There is an endless variety of colouring and marking in * For another account of the " dimmers " and their methods, see " The Birds of Bempton Cliffs," by E. W. Wade, Trans. Hull Scu and Field Nat. Club, Vol. III. pt. i, for 1903.

GARGANEY. (Querquedula circia).

Bird of passage in spring and autumn. Has nested in east York shire. The earliest published reference to this bird is found under the heading of " Summer Teal " in Willughby's " Ornith- ology " (1676, p. 378), where there is a description of the plumage, followed by the remark : " This is the least of the Ducks. In its stomach dissected I found nothing but grass and stones. This description we owe to Mr. Johnson " [of Brignall, near Greta Bridge].
Thomas Allis, 1844, wrote : Anas querquedula. The Garganey. Frequently shot near Don- caster in the spring ; Dr. Farrar has met with but one specimen near Barnsley, which was shot in the low grounds at Bolton-upon-Dearne in 1828 ; R. Leyland mentions a beautiful pair killed on the river near Elland many years ago ; it is rare near Leeds, but was obtained from the River Calder, near Copley Mill, in 1816; very rarely met with near York ; A. Strickland says it is occasionally met with in winter, but is one of our rarest species.
The Garganey is a bird of passage in the spring and autumn, of rather rare occurrence, and has been known to nest in east Yorkshire in 1882, where Mr. F. Boyes, in company with the late J. Swailes of Beverley, discovered the nest containing eight eggs, from which the female rose a few feet off. There is no doubt this species had bred on this ground for some years, as the young had several times been procured there in the early autumn, and adult birds, in full breeding plumage, had been shot on the river close by for a period extending over ten years. Mr. Richardson of Beverley has had many adult birds from the river Hull in the month of April, and a male, killed at Wilfholme, on the loth of that month in 1882, is in the Hull Museum. It also bred between 1880 and 1887 on the north side of the Teesmouth, which, though in Durham, is only separated from Yorkshire by the river, and stragglers from the Durham Marshes have, from time to time, occurred in this county ; two specimens in my collection were killed in August 1885.
The Garganey is of most frequent occurrence in east Yorkshire ; Mr. M. Bailey informs me he has three records at Flamborough ; two specimens in Mr. J. H. Gurney's collection were obtained at Bridlington on 1st and 2nd June 1868, and in the Holderness district it has been met with on many occasions, more especially in spring, though a young male was taken at Easington on iQth September 1892 (Nat. 1893, p. 8). At inland localities, in addition to those mentioned by Allis, it has been reported from Wensleydale (1823), Bedale (1870), Ilkley (1878), and Pontefract. A male in the Ripon Museum was obtained near that place, and Captain Dunnington Jefferson, of Thicket Priory, has an example killed on the Derwent near East Cottingwith.

GOLDEN-EYE.(Clangula glaucion)

Winter visitant, immature birds not uncommon in some seasons adult males rare. Occurs on inland waters in considerable flocks. The first mention of the Golden-eye in connection with York- shire was made by Fothergill, who stated, in 1799, that one shot near Helmsley was in his possession (" Orn. Brit." p. 10).
Thomas Allis, in 1844, wrote : Clangula vulgaris. Golden-eye Not uncommon near Doncaster ; is obtained at Hebden Bridge, also near Barnsley, Leeds, and Hudders- field ; it is very abundant in the neighbourhood of York, especially in immature plumage.
The Golden-eye is a late autumn or winter visitant, never, as a rule, arriving before October ; the individuals then seen are generally in immature plumage, the adult bird being rare, and the drake especially so. This duck is found on the coast singly or in small parties, and in the estuaries of the Tees and Humber it was fairly numerous before the growth of steam traffic ; it is now more abundant on fresh water lakes and rivers, while they remain unfrozen, than on the tide, though in hard frosts it is driven to the salt water and its numbers are augmented in severe winters by fresh comers. In the winter of 1864-65 it was numerous on the river Hull, and in immature plumage is Site of Coatham Decoy, 1887. R. Loff house.

LONG-TAILED DUCK. (Harelda glacialis)

Winter visitant ; sometimes not uncommon in immature plumage ofl the coast ; rare in the adult stage. Occasionally occurs as a straggler to inland waters. The earliest British information concerning this species is afforded in Willughby's " Ornithology " (1678), by Ralph Johnson of Brignall, near Greta Bridge, the friend and correspondent of John Ray, who sent a description of a bird called the " Swallow-tail'd Sheldrake,' which answers accurately to the Long-tailed Drake. Mr. Johnson's com- munication is as follows : " I should have taken this to be the Male, and that described by Wormius the Female Harelda in respect of some common notes in Tail and Neb, but that the Female was with this of mine (as may be presumed, a pair only, feeding together, several days in Tees river, below Barnard Castle), and did not much differ in colour." Thus far Mr. Johnson : " I am almost persuaded that it is specifically the same with Wormius his Harelda, differing only in Age or Sex, or perhaps both." (Will. " Orn." 1678, p. 364.)
Thomas Allis, 1844, reported : Clangula glacialis. Long-tailed Duck Not very uncommon about Doncaster ; it is met with but rarely near York. A. Strickland observes "This is truly a Northern species, but is occasionally met with in this country in winter, but is not common now." It is somewhat remarkable that the earliest British in- formation concerning this northern ocean-loving duck should be from the fresh waters of the Tees near Barnard Castle, as related by that famous old-time ornithologist Francis Willughby, whose oft-quoted correspondent, Ralph Johnson of Brignall, sent him the description of what is termed the " S wallow- tail' d Sheldrake." After the days of Willughby it was referred to by George Allan (1791) as " only visiting our coast in the severest winters, but never in numbers " (Fox's " Synopsis of the Tunstall Museum," p. 99).
The status of the Longtail, as denned by modern York- shiremen, is that of a rather rare winter visitant, the immature bird being more common than the adult, and as such it is known on the greater portion of the coast. It arrives in small parties during the October gales, and is considered rare in the Humber and Spurn district ; at Flamborough Mr. M. Bailey tells me he has only shot one ; at Filey it is uncommon, but is met with occasionally, and the same remark applies to Scarborough and Whitby. In the Redcar and Teesmouth neighbourhood it is a regular winter visitant in varying num- bers, making its appearance at the same time as the Scoters, with which species it often consorts, haunting the vicinity of the rocks, and feeding on the small marine life of the scars. In some years it is uncommon, and in other seasons it is of frequent occurrence, as, for example, in the winter of 1887-88, when it was very abundant, and at least forty were procured, to my knowledge, between October and February (Zool. 1888, p. 137 ; and Nat. 1889, p. 84).
The adult male is rare, the mature female still more so ; Mr. W. J. Clarke of Scarborough had one of the latter sent to preserve in November 1897, it being only the second example he had known ; but of the former I have observed, and secured, some very good specimens, and in February 1892 I watched, through the lifeboat telescope, two perfectly adult drakes disporting on the water about a mile off shore. Though essentially a marine duck, the Longtail has been occasionally obtained on inland waters, the first notice being by Willughby ; whilst Allis referred to its occurrence at Doncaster and near York. One was reported at Nun Appleton in December 1869 ; at Riccal, Driffield, and Cawood it is noted, also on the Derwent at East Cottingwith and Thicket Priory ; Mr. A. Crabtree records one at Sowerby Bridge in 1886 ; it has been taken at Wilstrop by the late John Harrison ; Mr. R. Foster saw two at Killinghall in December 1883 ; it has occurred two or three times on Hornsea Mere ; Scampston and Bessingby are localities where it is recorded, and, in October 1882, on a flooded meadow at Kilnsea, the late J. Cordeaux shot one which had been feeding on small red worms. The local names are Swallow-tail' d Sheldrake (Willughby, 1678) ; in the East Riding it is sometimes called Sea Pheasant, while it is known as Go-West at Redcar.

BLACK GROUSE. (Tetrao tetrix)

Resident, local, occurring chiefly on the western borders of the county. Has been introduced in several districts. In view of the general interest attached to this noble game-bird, it is desirable to give at some length the details concerning its past history and present distribution in the county. There is proof that it was an indigenous, and possibly abundant, species in prehistoric times, in the dis- covery, made by Mr. James Backhouse, of remains of this bird in the Teesdale caves, though the earliest dated allusion to it, so far as can be ascertained, is in the list of Wildfowl supplied to Skipton Castle in the seventeenth century, 1606- 1639 (Whitaker's " Craven," 2nd Ed. p. 310) ; it is referred to by Fr. Jessop, one of John Ray's correspondents, who, writing from Broomhall, Sheffield, on 25th November 1668 said : " I have stuffed the skin of a Moor Cock and Moor Hen " (" Correspondence of John Ray," 1848, p. 33). Another renowned Yorkshire ornithologist, Marmaduke Tunstall, F.R.S., of Wycliffe-on-Tees, also mentioned it, and his quaint comments are quoted in extenso, conveying, as they do, his opinions on the decrease of the bird in the north of England. His remarks are as follows :
" (Tetrao tetrix, Lin. & Gm.). Grown very scarce all over the North of England .... for which many probable reasons are given : the principal seem to be the great improvement of late years in the art of shooting flying ; moors and commons taken up ; the hurt sustained by burning the ling in the moors to make the herbage grow, which it is very difficult to prevent, being commonly done by stealth in the night ; when once fired will reach miles : this done in the spring destroys many eggs, and the old ones upon them .... lastly, the facility of carrying them to London and the great trading towns ; and the great demand there for them by flys and machines, and various other causes.
The whiteness of part of the breast so singularly contrasted by the surrounding black flesh, seems rather a singular circumstance. Commonly called in the north the White Muscle. This is not found in the congenerous species of the Cock of the Wood, or Red Grouse. The Black Cock is a very rare bird in Yorkshire at present. Was assured by an elderly gentleman, that he remembered them on our neighbouring moors ; now a Phcenix or a Parrot might as well be seen ; in short, except ifi a very few places, where they are diligently guarded, they are rarely to be found in this or any of the Northern Counties Sometimes a few are found in wild boggy moors, where none can come at them. (Tunst. MS. 1784, pp. 78-9.) " The Rev. Geo. Graves, the author of " British Ornithology " (1813), noted the fact that " poachers take considerable num- bers of Blackcocks by imitating the call of the hen-bird, as many as fifty males being lured by this means in the course of two days." R. Leyland, in 1829, remarked it was pretty common near Sheffield, but odd individuals occasionally strayed, and he had known examples killed in Wombwell Wood and vicinity in 1829 ; and Dr. Farrar, in 1844, stated it was naturalized on Bradfield Moors. Thomas Allis, in his Report, also written in 1844, observed : Tetrao tetvix. Black Grouse J. Heppenstall says they are pretty abundant in some woods near Sheffield, and that a female was taken one evening last winter, about ten o'clock, in a street of the town ; R. Leyland says two instances have come to his knowledge of the female of this species having rambled so far from its native locality as the neighbourhood of Heptonstall and Lightcliffe ; it is sometimes met with near Hebden Bridge ; S. Gibson has a fine male shot there. May 1842.
The present status of the species is that of a resident, limited in numbers, and very local in its distribution, being restricted chiefly to the southern, western, and north-western parts of the county, and, generally speaking, stationary or decreasing in numbers. It still breeds in one or two localities in the neighbourhood of Sheffield ; in the Holmfirth and Penistone districts it has been introduced by Mr. Spencer Stanhope, and a few pairs breed annually.
In the Hebden Valley several attempts have been made to acclimatise it ; eggs were set under domestic hens and chicks were reared, but they gradually died off or disappeared ; similar results attended efforts in the same direction at Whitewell in Bowland, the last specimen obtained there being a Grey-hen, shot on Holden Clough in 1885 ; nor has any greater success been achieved at Arncliffe in Wharf edale. Near Huddersfield it has been naturalized at Meltham, where a few pairs still breed, and some are killed annually on the moors. On the Bluberhouse estate in Washburndale it was formerly not uncommon, as is shown by the following extract from Sir Thomas Frankland's gamebook for 1798 : " Pullan, keeper, says that when a boy he shot nine Blackgrouse one morning on these moors, and that his mother made them into a pie for the haymakers." It had evidently greatly decreased after that period, for some were turned down by Mr. J. Yorke of Pateley Bridge, but soon disappeared. The present owner, Lord Walsingham, writing to Mr. W. Eagle Clarke on i4th September 1886, says " I have killed two, and seen one other since this moor has been mine ; the last killed was in 1875, the last seen in 1877." A more recent instance of its occurrence is mentioned by Mr. William Storey of Fewston, who saw a male and two females in a plantation in February 1895.
In Arkengarthdale and Swaledale the Black Grouse is found at Kexwith in the New Forest, where it breeds in small numbers, and is slightly increasing (Nat. 1892, p. 323) ; it is fairly numerous on Col. Wade Dalton's Barden and Hauxwell moor, between Leyburn and Richmond, and also on a small moor about three miles north-west of the latter town ; a few brace occur on Stainton moor, and an occasional brace on Carperby moor. In Wensleydale it breeds annually on Bellerby Moor ; odd birds are found on Lord Bolton's moors, and it has also been seen on the East Witton moors, near Colsterdale, but the numbers do not appear to increase.
In the extreme north-west corner of the county near Sedbergh, a few, probably wanderers from Westmorland, occasionally nest in Garsdale. In Upper Teesdale district three or four plantations are specially devoted to this bird, where it is probably increasing ; this appears to be the case also at Lartington, where it has been introduced, and is fairly common in the fir woods, whence stragglers find their way on to the adjoining moors ; Mr. E. B. Emerson shot several examples on Bowes moor in the " seventies." In the Cleveland area Mr. Thomas Stephenson of Whitby was told by Mr. W. H.*Raw that Blackgame bred yearly in Commondale until 1847 ; a specimen obtained there is in his possession, but, about the date mentioned, a pine planta- tion, where they nested, was cut down and the birds disappeared ; a few were turned down at Kildale in 1840, by the late R. Livesey, and were occasionally found in the neighbouring woods (Zool. 1845, p. 1112) ; I have been informed by Mr. W. Cook, late keeper of Crinkle, that some were introduced into East Cleveland about the same year ; they bred along the moor edges, and were from time to time killed in the fir plantations around Gerrick until 1860. The late Canon J. C. Atkinson reported a brood of nine on Danby low moor in 1846, which died out, although, to his knowledge, none were shot (" Moorland Parish," p. 309). Odd birds were met with in Glaisdale until 1840, and in Fryup until 1865.
In 1872 Blackgame were re-introduced on Lord Downe's Danby estate, but no evidence is forthcoming as to their breeding there, though odd individuals occasionally occurred in the neighbourhood. In the winter of 1864 a Black-cock took up his quarters in a rabbit warren on the cliffs near Loftus, where it remained till spring. Sir A. E. Pease remarks that an old gamekeeper, named Pearey, formerly in his employ, could remember Blackgame being common at Hutton in the early part of the past century ; the last indigenous nest was seen about 1852. Several pairs of birds were turned out at Birk Brow, near Guisborough, in 1860, and there was a brood that year at Waupley. Within the past few years I have had intelligence of a few examples seen on the Cleveland Moors, and so recently as 1903 Lord de L'Isle and Dudley, writing on i6th December, says a Black-cock was observed on the moors near Guisborough in Nest of Black Grouse, north-west Yorkshire. R. Fortune. October ; one was procured in Bransdale in the year 1890, and in Bilsdale, south of the Cleveland area, they were intro- duced by setting eggs, about 1896, but do not appear to have become acclimatized.
In the south-east of the county an attempt was made to introduce this species on Thorne Waste ; a few birds have been observed at long intervals ; a nest was found in the year 1880, while Mr. Leonard West of Brough killed a male bird in October 1896, near the Vermuyden River. The causes which have led to the general decrease of Black- game in Yorkshire are, probably, the increase of Pheasant rearing and the consequent multiplication of those birds, the cocks battling with the Black-cocks for possession of the woods, and so driving them away. In various other parts of the county than those indicated stragglers have occurred, travelling birds, doubtless, from one or other of the above mentioned centres of introduction ; one instance only need be cited as an example, namely : two Grey-hens seen on Strensall Common in 1892.
Cases of hybridity between the Black Grouse and Pheasant are not infrequent, and of these Yorkshire can claim two examples ; one was shot on 30th October 1894, on a moor near Loftus-in-Cleveland, which, through the kindness of Mr. F. Wilson Horsfall, came into my possession ; it exhibits the characteristics of both parents, but the Pheasant pre- dominates, and it is of the same type as that figured in Vol. iii. p. 70, of the 4th Edition of Yarrell's " British Birds." The other, which is similar to the first, was taken near Whitby, being acquired by Mr. W. Pyman, and described by Mr. W. B. Tegetmeir (Field, 23rd January, 1897) ; it is a somewhat strange coincidence that both these birds should have been obtained within a short distance of each other, and points to a similarity of origin. Local names : Black-cock (male), Grey-hen (female), Heath Cock, Blackgame.

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Victorian Taxidermy

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Taxidermy Links