64 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



had been occupied by one the previous season. This is 

 strange when we remember that many birds return to their 

 old haunts. In some seasons I have heard Nightingales sing 

 for an evening or two in a particular spot, and then never 

 be heard again ; not having foimd mates, they have gone 

 elsewhere probably." 



Other instances in the Beverley district are at Cherry 

 Burton in 1889 ; at Walkington in 1892 ; at Middleton in 

 1898, and at Boynton in 1890. 



In the extreme north of Holderness, at the foot almost of 

 the Wolds, a pair nested at Littlethorpe, in 1876, in a plantation 

 on the farm of Mr. W. F. Forster, and not one hundred yards 

 from his house. The nest was taken on the 26th of May, 

 and an egg kindly sent for inspection. The birds built a 

 second time in the same wood, but the nest was unfortunately 

 destroyed. The male used to sing in Mr. Forster's garden 

 continually, and was both seen and heard by him and his 

 friends. Mr. Forster's son afterwards lived at High Cay- 

 thorpe, near Bridlington, and he found a Nightingale's nest 

 in the garden hedge there in 1887. 



There is no satisfactory evidence regarding the occurrence 

 of the Nightingale in north-west Yorkshire, but the following 

 references to it for the district may be quoted as being on 

 record. " The Nightingale is a very rare visitor in Wharfedale, 

 for I have constantly asked this question. A woodman 

 told me that he once heard one when working at Grassington 

 Wood, it was towards evening, and many years since." — 

 F. Montagu, " Gleanings in Craven," 1838, p. 57). From 

 " Whitaker's Craven " (2nd Ed., 1812, footnote p. 491), I 

 transcribe the following passage, which is perhaps worthy of 

 quotation here : " As a trait of old ornithology, I must inform 

 the reader that Craven had formerly two very different birds, 

 long since extinct, the Eagle and the Nightingale. The 

 existence of the first .... is proved by ... . that of the 

 latter, in Ribblesdale, by Nichtgaleriding, the name of a 

 place in the parish of Bolton, mentioned in the Coucher 

 ' Book of Sallay.' " 



