56 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



and was a very fair ornithologist. Sessay is five miles south 

 of Thirsk. I cannot help thinking that a few Nightingales 

 come north more frequently than is thought to be the case, 

 but so many don't know the note, and if they did, do not 

 care." In Gill's " Vallis Eboracensis," published in 1852, 

 p. 412, the occurrence of the Nightingale near Easingwold 

 is thus alluded to : " About half-a-mile from Huby, near the 

 road leading to ToUerton, are the fragments of a ruined 

 mansion or monastery, called the Mote, presenting an area 

 of about 600 square yards, surrounded by a deep dyke or 

 fosse, twelve feet in width and seven feet deep. It is now 

 overgrown with Oak and Ash, and for the last four years 

 has been the solitary but favourite retreat, where, in summer 

 evenings the Nightingale 



' Sings darkling ; and in shadiest covert hid, 

 Tunes her nocturnal note.' " 



The following information relating to the districts of 

 Wetherby and Boston Spa was supplied by the late Rev. J. 

 W. Chaloner of Newton Kyme, who wrote in 1886 : "As far 

 as I can remember — and that is sixty years ago — the appear- 

 ance of the Nightingale in this district is very rare ; the first 

 was at Woodhall many years ago, the next time was at 

 Stockeld Park. In 1846, one at Colonel Gunter's, Wetherby 

 Grange, where, alas, I saw a blackguard at two o'clock in 

 the morning with a cage, and two or three nights afterwards 

 its song ceased, so I presume he caught it. The next I heard 

 here was in 1866. The last here this spring." A pair was 

 reported to have built in the vicarage hedge at Thorparch 

 a number of years ago, but the nest was taken. Its nesting 

 near Bramham has already been alluded to prior to 1844, 

 and in more recent years it has been known to resort to that 

 place, and to Skewkirk. Tunstall, one hundred years ago, 

 informed Latham that " near Abberford, particularly near 

 Hazlewood, the seat of Sir Walter Vavasour, it is extremely 

 lavish in song." 



Near Harrogate, the Nightingale was first noticed on 



