xxxii INTRODUCTION. 



the breeding species and the arrival of migrants and 

 stragglers. 



Situate about midway on the eastern seaboard of the 

 British Isles, and directly opposite the European continent, 

 Yorkshire is sufficiently far south to include species whose 

 distribution is of the southern type — such as the Nuthatch 

 and the Nightingale, which find in it the northern limit of 

 their range, while it is sufficiently far north to admit of the 

 inclusion of such species as the Curlew, Dunlin, etc., which 

 here meet with their southern breeding limits. 



As regards the influx of migratory birds, a glance at the 

 map of Europe will at once show the advantageous position 

 of the county. Not only does its coast lie opposite that of 

 the Continent, but Flamborough is on the same parallel of 

 latitude as Heligoland, the island which is so renowned for 

 the myriads of migrants which pass and repass it every spring 

 and autumn. The observations made there for many years 

 by the late H. Gatke show that most of the birds passing 

 over Heligoland in the autumn do so in a direction due E. 

 and W. Such a line of flight, if sustained, would land the 

 stream of immigrants upon the Yorkshire coast, and especially 

 upon the prominent Headland of Flamborough, which as a 

 locality productive of rare birds has few equals. 



The configuration of the coast materially increases the 

 advantage of the position, which is still more enhanced by 

 the possession of two such points as Flamborough and Spurn. 

 From the Teesmouth the coast-line trends in a gracefully 

 convex sweep in a south-easterly direction to the Headland 

 of Flamborough — a promontory which stands boldly out in 

 the North Sea forty-three miles in advance of the Teesmouth, 

 and fully fifty miles E. of the mean longitude of the coast 

 of Durham. South of Flamborough the coast-line recedes, 

 and after the concave sweep of Bridlington Bay, again advances 

 terminating in the long narrow spit of Spurn, which — project- 

 ing sixty-two miles E. of the Teesmouth — overlaps to a 

 considerable extent the coast of Lincolnshire. Those birds — 

 mostly waders and marine species — which pursue a north and 

 south course in their migrations, are in the habit of following 



