TRANSACTIONS 



OF THE 



Dull Scientific 



AND 



jfiefo maturalists' Club. 



EDITED BY 



T. SHEPPARD, F.G.S. 



THE BIRDS OF BEMPTON CLIFFS. 



By E. W. Wade. 



{Read February igth, igo2.) 



IF there is one feature in the landscape of the broad-acred 

 shire of which Yorkshiremen may justifiably be proud, 

 it is the chalk cliffs of the East Riding. Other counties 

 can boast mountains, dales, moors, rivers, perhaps as good 

 as or better than ours, but on the whole of the east coast 

 of England, at any rate, we may safely say there are no 

 cliffs to equal these. Making their appearance first at a 

 point somewhat east of Speeton, they extend in a mighty 

 rampart, intersected in three places only by slopes which 

 can be descended without ropes, to the Thornwick bays, 

 from which point to Flambro' Head they are broken up into 

 a series of indentations and caves, famous through all 

 England for their beauty. Can any scene surpass the wild 

 magnificence of these rocks in the storms of winter, when 

 the billows are thundering mountains high at their bases, 

 dashing the spray to a height of a hundred feet or more 

 over the low cliffs of Thornwick, and sending the wind-borne 

 spume miles inland to tell the tale of their fury. Woe 

 betide the unhappy sailors whose vessel is caught in the 



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