326 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



Mr. E. R. Waite, in the Naturalist (1891, p. 98), states that 

 Mr. F. G. Binnie of Edinburgh University wrote : — " I find 

 in my diary, 27th February 1868, the following note : Mr. 

 Simpson, bird-stuffer, York, told me that some years Since 

 he had bought from some boys at Tadcaster a pair of young 

 Hawks, which, on rearing, turned out to be of this speciesp 

 The old birds had been seen several times afterwards." From 

 this it seems probable the Buzzard has bred in the district. 



Mr. H. Smurthwaite, writing in Morris's " Naturalist " 

 (1853, p. 108), recorded its breeding near Sedbergh in the 

 summer of 1852 ; and the same gentleman in the same journal 

 mentions its nesting in Red Crag, Richmond, where five young 

 were reared, a most unusual number, for, so far as my experi- 

 ence goes, two to three is the most frequent number of eggs, 

 but I have known of a clutch of four taken in Westmorland 

 in the spring of 1900. 



There is authentic evidence of a pair or two nesting in the 

 unfrequented mountainous districts of north-west Yorkshire 

 in 1878, when the eggs were taken and the old birds shot at, 

 in the belief that they were Golden Eagles, but I am not at 

 liberty to mention the exact locality, as these birds continue 

 to maintain a precarious existence in their fastnesses, where 

 they are able to pass undetected and undisturbed, and, so 

 recently as the year 1906, succeeded in bringing off young ones. 

 The late James Varley observed a pair flying in circles over 

 Gordale Scar on 6th May 1877 ; Mr. F. S. Mitchell, late of 

 Clitheroe, states that it is noted almost every year on the 

 Fells near Slaidburn, although he has never heard of its breed- 

 ing ; and Captain Wade Dalton of Hauxwell Hall, near Bedale, 

 remarks that it occurs in the winter on the moors but is by 

 no means common. No doubt at this season it descends from 

 the higher and more exposed fells lying to the westward. 



Mr. J. E. Tinkler writes in the Naturalist (1892, p. 319), 

 that up to 1870 it bred on Buzzard Scar in Swinnergill. Both 

 Buzzards and Ravens used to breed in Swaledale, and fierce 

 contests took place for possession of the nesting sites. It 

 possibly nested in Arkengarthdale up to 1850, and has been 

 obtained in several localities in the high reaches of these dales, 



