562 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



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 

 waiTens 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. 

 Quint in, writes as follows : — 



" Scampston Hall, 21st May i8go. 



" 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 

 Weaver thorpe 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, 



