632 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



common in South Holderness near the Spurn promontory, 

 where five were seen together in the autumn of 1884, and 

 where it was unusually abundant in the season of 1903. It 

 has also been known at the period of migration on the shore 

 below the cliffs of Flamborough. 



When departing it has occurred near Spurn in April, as 

 many as five or six being seen together there on the 17th 

 of that month in 1881 ; as a rule, however, it leaves in May. 



In the North Riding it is by no means common, though 

 recorded as at one time regularly visiting the neighbourhood 

 of Killerby, near Northallerton {Zool. 1844, p. 444), and it 

 is generally met with in the dales or by the sides of moorland 

 ponds. It has been noted at Masham several times in August ; 

 in the Cleveland district I have observed it very rarely near 

 the Teesmouth ; occasionally in the marshes in September, 

 and once on 27th July, when I flushed two by the side of a 

 brackish pool on the reclaimed land. 



In the West Riding it is described as a rare visitant in 

 spring and autumn, but several have been reported in Lower 

 Wharfedale, where the late Rev. J. W. Chaloner saw four 

 on 28th June 1883 ; and an instance of one wintering near 

 Settle is chronicled by the Rev. E. Peake {Nat. 1893, p. 171). 



With regard to the alleged nesting of this bird in Yorkshire, 

 the late Alfred Roberts of the Scarborough Museum, reported 

 to Mr. W. Eagle Clarke (MS., 25th January 1881), that a 

 gamekeeper named Roberts at Hunmanby told him he had 

 shot a specimen when it was leaving an old nest in a tree ; 

 and that he (A. Roberts) had stuffed the bird for the shooter. 



Examples have been seen near Beverley in June, and 

 the species has once been noted at Lowthorpe in summer. 



The only vernacular names are those in use in the East 

 Riding, where at Spurn it is known as the Drain Swallow 

 and Wheat Bird ; and in one locality in South Holderness, 

 at Cherry Cob Sands, it receives the cognomen of White Rump. 



[An example of the Yellowshank (Totaniis flavipes, 

 Gmelin), an American species, is mentioned in the " Handbook 

 of the Vertebrate Fauna of Yorkshire " (p. 77), as having 



