6o2 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



an editorial comment in that journal on the unusual weight. 

 In the York Museum is a specimen shot at Hay ton, in Septem- 

 ber 1878, said to have scaled the extraordinary weight of 140Z. 



The late W. W. Boulton of Beverley mentioned that the 

 gizzard of one, obtained in October 1863, contained a few seeds 

 and vegetable matter, foreign to the bird's usual food {Zool. 

 1864, p. 8890). 



The communicated and recorded occurrences number 

 upwards of sixty, and are too voluminous for particularization. 

 It may, perhaps, suffice to state that eighteen have been shot 

 in the North Riding, seventeen in the East Riding, and in 

 the West Riding twenty-nine. 



COMMON SNIPE. 



Qallinago coelestis {Frenzel). 



Resident, local, breeds in most suitable districts. A great influx 

 of immigrants takes places in autumn. During winter it is more 

 generally distributed. 



The earliest mention of the Snipe in Yorkshire is, probabl3% 

 to be found in the Northumberland Household Book, in 

 1512, in which the price to be paid for birds for " my Lordes 

 owne Mees " is fixed, and " Snypes after 3 for id." is given 

 as applicable to the species under notice. Another early 

 allusion is in the value of " Wildfowl at Hull " in 1560, that 

 of a Snipe being id. 



Thomas Allis, in 1844, wrote : — 



Scolopax gallinago. — Common Snipe — Common in most parts ; 

 it breeds occasionally near Sheffield, Doncaster, and York ; and on 

 the moors near Halifax sparingly. 



The Snipe is a local resident in Yorkshire, breeding not 

 uncommonly from the marshy lands bordering the coast 

 up to the high fells of the west and north-west and on the 

 Cleveland Hills. In the dales of the West and North Ridings 

 it nests in most of the rough sedgey pastures and boggy 



