YORKSHIRE—PHYSICAL ASPECT. XXVil 
But the famous headland and the great chalk cliffs with their 
ornithological wealth are not the only attractions which Flam- 
borough possesses, for the base of the cliffs abounds with rock- 
pools, which, though as yet almost uninvestigated, will doubtless 
yield a varied and interesting fish-fauna. 
The chalk terminates below Sewerby Hall, and is succeeded 
by the low diluvial cliffs and sandy beach of Bridlington Bay, 
stretching for forty-two miles in a bold concave sweep, which 
terminates in the marram-covered sandhills of Spurn. ‘This line 
of coast, the eastern border of Holderness, composed of soft 
strata which are being steadily wasted away by the action of the 
sea, is comparatively uninteresting, and its vertebrate zoology 
offers but little that is worthy of special note until Spurn is 
reached. Spurn Point, the southern termination of the Yorkshire 
coast, 1s connected with the mainland of Holderness by a narrow 
neck of sandhills overgrown with marram-grass, a few yards in 
width, and preserved intact only by constant supervision, and at 
considerable expense. Were these intermitted the sea would 
speedily break through the isthmus and join the Humber, as it 
has done before now. Spurn is ornithologically rich. Birds 
migrating along the coast, or arriving from the east, find many 
temptations to linger. The miles of mudflats left bare on the 
Humber side of the isthmus by every receding tide offer great 
attractions and a never failing supply of food to various shore 
birds, and in the spring and autumn are frequented by great num- 
bers of birds of this class. Many of these winter here—such as the 
bartailed godwit, grey plover, knot, turnstone, sanderling, and others. 
It is fortunate that Spurn is very strictly preserved, and equally 
so that this part of the coast is unsuitable for ‘punting.’ In 
winter thousands of duck and many brent geese are to be noted 
on the Humber; while woodcocks are sometimes observed in 
very great numbers on their arrival in the latter days of October. 
The Geographical Position of Yorkshire, viewed 
from a faunistic standpoint, must be regarded as singularly favour- 
able, as it presents a combination of advantages seldom equalled, 
both as regards the actual geographical range of the breeding 
species and the arrival of migrants and stragglers. 
