STONECHAT. 29 



until 1880, to breed annually near Sheffield on the wild wastes 

 and commons bordering the moors, though only one or two 

 pairs were to be seen in a large tract of country, and recent 

 information tends to prove that it has ceased to frequent 

 the neighbourhood ; near Barnsley and Wakefield it is an 

 occasional visitor on passage through the district, and has 

 been known to nest on one occasion ; in the Huddersfield 

 area it remains during the year near the moorlands, but is 

 evidently far from common ; at Almondbury a pair was 

 seen in 1887, and one was shot the following year ; near 

 Skelmanthorpe it is reported as nesting, and has been seen 

 in winter at Ingbirchworth ; in the Wilsden locality there 

 are two instances of its breeding many j'ears ago, and none 

 for more than thirty years past, which is strange, as gorse 

 flourishes up to a thousand feet elevation ; a re])ortcd 

 instance of the finding of a nest near Halifax is doubtful ; 

 at Hebden Bridge and Keighley it is a rare spring migrant ; 

 at Saltaire the old and young have been once discovered, 

 and near Liversedge a small family party was noticed on 

 5th October 1899. 



In the extreme north-west it is met with frequently in 

 Craven, and at Settle the nest has been found so recently 

 as 1900, also at jNIalham ; further north, near Clapham, the 

 bird is a fairly common summer visitant ; in Upper Wharfe- 

 dale Mr. W. Eagle Clarke noted one at Grassington, and lower 

 down the Valley, at Ilkley, in May 1871, he found three 

 nests with eggs on the banks of the Wharfe, but diligent 

 search failed to reveal either nests or birds there since that 

 year, though in 1886 he observed two at Linton ; near Leeds 

 it is scarce, but is said to have bred occasionally, once at 

 Adel Moor, where a pair with food in their bills was seen in 

 1900 and 190 1 ; it has also been noticed on the Otley Road 

 within a mile of the city, and near Headingly one was seen 

 on 24th February 1890 ; it is a rare species in Nidderdale, 

 but two instances are known of its nesting in the upper portions 

 of the dale, at Guyscliffe in 1884 and at Fellbeck in 1885 ; 

 it formerly bred in the Washburn Valley, but is now only a 



