INTRODUCTION. xxvii 



Yorkshire visitants, such as the Great White Heron, the 

 Broad-billed Sandpiper, and others. The Mere is inhabited 

 by pike, which attain to a great size, and are exceedingly 

 destructive to the birds which frequent the water, especially 

 the young ones, a circumstance probably explaining the 

 absence of the Little Grebe. 



The Yorkshire Coast-line — commencing at the mouth 

 of the Tees, and extending 117 miles in length to Spurn Point — 

 is one of the most diversified possessed by any English county. 



The estuary of the Tees — though by no means comparable 

 in size or attractiveness to that of the Humber — is yet of 

 considerable extent. That there was formerly an extensive 

 breeding colony of sea-birds is proved by the following extract 

 from the Cottonian MS. (about 1604) : — " Neere unto Dob- 

 hoome (the port in the mouth of Tease soe named) the shore 

 lyes fiatt, where a shelfe of sand raised above the highe water 

 marke enterteines an infynite number of sea-fowle, which 

 lay their egges here and there scatteringlie, in such sorte 

 that in tyme of breedinge one can hardlye sett his foote 

 soe warelye that he spoyle not many of their nests." The 

 species nesting there would probably include the Oyster- 

 Catcher and several kinds of Terns ; old inhabitants of the 

 district are now (1906) living who can remember Terns breeding 

 near the estuary.* This area includes vast stretches of sands, 

 which afforded the last breeding haunt of the seal in York- 

 shire (one sandbank indeed bearing the name of " Seal Sand "); 

 also a series of low salt marshes bordered by sand-hills, and 

 intersected by pools and salt-water ditches — formerly the 

 habitat of shore fishes, and an attractive resort for such 

 migratory birds as the Waders, Ducks, and Geese. But, as 

 so often has happened in the north of England, the develop- 

 ment of trade has here sadly interfered with the natural 

 productiveness of the district. The discovery of Cleveland 

 ironstone — and consequent rapid rise of Middlesbrough as 

 a manufacturing and sea-port town — has involved a train of 



• Dobhoome is on the Yorkshire side, near Tod Point ; it is now no 

 longer a port, and is called Dabholme Beck, or in the fisherman's 

 vernacular, " Dabbing Gut." 



