PREFACE. 



THE history of the Birds of Yorkshire is based upon 

 an unrivalled and exceptionally complete mass of 

 material, which, in addition to my own observations for 

 many years past, comprises the voluminous notes collected 

 by Mr. W. Eagle Clarke and Mr. W. Denison Roebuck, 

 which include the MSS. of the late John Cordeaux, 

 intended for a new edition of his " Birds of the Humber 

 District," together with lists, notes, and observations 

 from nearly all the leading ornithologists of the county ; 

 indeed, there has scarcely been a Yorkshire naturalist 

 living within the past thirty-five years who has not con- 

 tributed manuscript notes or lists to the store available 

 for reference. 



The scope of the work is comprehensive, and in the 

 account of each species includes particulars of faunistic 

 position, distribution, migration, nidification, folk-lore, 

 varieties, and vernacular names, whilst at the commence- 

 ment of each is given the verbatim account from the 

 Report of Thomas Alhs, the earhest Yorkshire one, now 

 published for the first time, which, up to the year 1881, 

 when Mr. W. Eagle Clarke's contribution on the Birds 

 of the County to the " Vertebrate Fauna of Yorkshire " 

 appeared, was the only complete list. 



It is necessary to explain that this work was com- 

 menced by Mr. Eagle Clarke, published in the Vertebrate 

 Fauna section of the Transactions of the Yorkshire 

 Naturalists' Union, and discontinued owing to his 

 removal from Yorkshire to Edinburgh in 1888. The 



