YORKSHIRE—PHYSICAL ASPECT. xxiii 
bittern, the ‘sholarde,’ the crane, and the ruff, and possibly of the 
beaver. ‘That it was originally fen is shown by the fact that in or 
before Haworth’s time it was inhabited by characteristic marsh- 
loving insects, and even the swallow-tailed butterfly ( Papzdo 
machaon) is recorded as having formerly occurred. ‘This is not 
improbable, for though the insect is now confined exclusively to 
the fens of Cambridgeshire and Norfolk, there is evidence to show 
that formerly it had a much more extensive range over England, 
even as far west as Shropshire, and southward to Dorsetshire and 
Hampshire. The sheets of water which formerly diversified the 
surface were made use of for the establishment of decoys for the 
capture of wild duck, and consequently we find that the greater 
number—four out of seven—of the decoys known to have existed 
in Yorkshire were here,at Home, Meaux, Watton, and Scorborough. 
The impetus given to agriculture about the close of the last 
century, and the rapid development of high farming, proved fatal 
to much of the ornithological wealth of Holderness. The decoys 
were destroyed by the Holderness (1762) and the Beverley and 
Barmston (1800) drainage schemes; and many haunts were broken 
up by the general revival of agriculture. 
Among the animals which once inhabited the district the herd 
of wild white cattle, which survived at Burton Constable till about 
the close of the last century, deserves mention. 
Holderness, even now, is a rich ornithological district, the 
turtle dove and the quail being regular summer visitants, and 
the hawfinch breeds annually in some abundance. On Hornsea 
Mere—the largest natural sheet of water in Yorkshire—the reed 
warbler, the pochard, and the great crested grebe breed regularly ; 
and it has produced some of the rarest Yorkshire visitants, such 
as the great white heron, the broad-billed sandpiper and others. 
The mere is inhabited by pike, which attain to enormous size, and 
are exceedingly destructive to the birds which frequent the water, 
especially the young ones, a circumstance probably explaining the 
absence of the little grebe. 
The Yorkshire Coast-line—commencing at the mouth 
of the Tees, and extending 117 miles in length to Spurn Point— 
