76 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



it can find suitable nesting haunts ; it breeds in most of the 

 wooded dales even up to the edge of the moorlands, as well 

 as in the low country, where fir plantations exist, also 

 occasionally in shrubberies and gardens, and in some cases 

 its nest may be found within a mile or two of our largest 

 manufacturing towns. 



The tiny Goldcrest is one of the best known migrants 

 at the light stations on the coast, and in the autumn incredible 

 numbers of these fragile looking voyagers brave the dangers 

 of the North Sea to land on our shores during the early 

 part of October ; they generally arrive simultaneously with 

 the Short-eared Owl and Woodcock, hence one of their 

 local names — " Woodcock Pilot." In 1881 these three 

 species appeared about the 5th September, fully a month 

 in advance of the time when they may usually be expected, 

 being observed at Spurn and also at Redcar, where they 

 sometimes come into the fishermen's cottages, and remain 

 as long as there are sufficient flies to support them. The 

 Humber fishermen have remarked that at this season they 

 frequently alight on the smacks in the North Sea, and in 

 thick foggy weather hundreds perish ; as they become 

 quite bewildered, their instinct apparently forsaking them, 

 they do not know what direction to take ; they often rest 

 on larger vessels also, and so long ago as 1833 Edward Blyth 

 wrote that on the 7th October, when fourteen miles off 

 Wliitby on the voyage to London, a flock of Goldcrests 

 settled on the ship's tackle (Rennie's Field Naturalist, 

 November 1833). They have been seen on the sand-hills 

 at Spurn in hundreds about the middle of October, and so 

 exhausted that they could have been easily caught in a 

 butterfly net. If the records relating to migration are 

 searched it will be found that, since Selby's time down to 

 the present date, the Goldcrest has attracted the attention 

 of naturalists ; in some years it has arrived in what are 

 termed " rushes," and in other seasons in only small numbers ; 

 Selby recorded a great flight on 24th and 25th October 1822, 

 covering the coast from Berwick to Whitby ; in 1864 there 

 were great numbers at Spurn and in Holderness ; in 1875 



