YORKSHIRE—PHYSICAL ASPECT, xix 
in the Don valley, and the fine parks about Barnsley and Wake- 
field, still afford a shelter to woodland species of birds, some of 
considerable interest—such as the nightingale and the pied fly- 
catcher—though the inimical influence of smoke has long told 
upon the trees. The district is also interesting as within it is 
situated Walton Park—the sylvan domain wherein for many years 
Charles Waterton extended complete protection to living things of 
_all kinds. Here flourished a famous heronry, which after the 
death of Mr. Waterton was disturbed, and finally dispersed. But 
the continued presence of so dense a population and the ever- 
increasing demands of modern commerce are gradually breaking 
up and destroying what suitable habitats the district still 
possesses, hastening the process of extinction which is continually 
going on, and thus diminishing a fauna which was never at any 
time a very rich one. 
The Central Plain, including under this name not only 
the entire vale of York, but also the lowlands of Cleveland and 
the Tees valley, is a broad fertile tract of agricultural land, for 
the most part below 300 feet in elevation, traversed by the middle 
and lower portions of most of the Yorkshire rivers, and stretching 
from the banks of the Tees to the borders of Nottinghamshire. 
Its light and sandy soils support ordinary lowland and woodland 
types of vegetation, the fauna partaking of the same character. 
In former times much of the surface was frequented by the 
large wild animals, now classed amongst the extinct forms, and in 
particular the famous forest of Galtres, which stretched for many 
miles in extent from beneath the very walls of York, was inhabited 
by various beasts of chase, as wolves and red deer, and particu- 
larly famed as a harbour of wild boars. Parts of the district still 
remain to some extent in their. pristine condition ; and such places 
as Pilmoor, and Strensall and Riccall Commons—the breeding 
places of the redshank, teal, snipe, blackheaded gull, &c., 
and some of them formerly of the ruff and other birds—with 
some boggy carrs and wet heaths of the North and East Ridings, 
and Askham Bog, still display their primitive characteristics. In 
the north-west the sylvan recesses of Hackfall still harbour the 
