INTRODUCTION. 
THE primary object of the present pamphlet has been to 
compile as perfect a list as possible, up to date, of all species of 
birds, now included in the British List, which have occurred in 
the Humber District in the last half century. Secondly, to give 
under each species, in as few words as necessary, the incomings 
and outgoings connected with the various migratory movements 
in the year—the times of arrival and departure of summer and 
winter visitors, and the dates connected with the casual and 
accidental occurrences of those wanderers from distant lands 
which, time by time, have assisted so much in swelling the 
avi-faunal list of the district. Notes also of the nesting of the 
rarer species have been added, with special reference to the last 
eggs taken of former residents now practically extinct. 
The time of arrival of many of our summer birds will be 
found to be often considerably later than the rest of the kingdom. 
The dates given are the approximate ones and are calculated 
from notes ranging over thirty-five years. The district is very 
backward and much exposed, especially near the coast, to the 
bleak northerly and easterly winds of spring, which retard, or 
hold back, spring immigrants. 
In the land areas of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, taken for 
the purpose of this list, and called from their chief river and 
watercourse the Humber district, are included the sea coast 
from Gibraltar Point in Lincolnshire on the south to Scarborough 
in the north, a small south-east corner in the North Riding, and 
an extended area in the Hast Riding bounded on the west by 
the river Derwent; in North Lincolnshire as much as is under- 
stood by the county and political boundaries of the parts of 
Lindsey. There is also an immense water area, the Humber 
