248 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



corded in 1869, when one was shot in Castle Eden Dene on 

 26th October 1869, and its nest found. It was also found 

 breeding in 1870, and one bird was caught ; and again in 

 1871, when Mr Slater found the nest. In 1872 Mr Slater 

 records that, owing to protection afterwards afforded to it by 

 Mr Burdon, it was multiplying very rapidly. In 1873 it 

 appeared at Hexham, and in 1874 at Eavensworth, where 

 several pairs were seen. This brings the records up to the 

 date of Hancock's " Birds of Northumberland and Durham," 

 viz., eighteen. 



" Only a month ago," says Mr Cordeaux, however (in lit. 

 12th January 1883), "I received from a friend a stockdove 

 shot the day previously when driving some large woods in 

 Durham, with a request that I would say what it was. So 

 this does not look as if it was very common in 1882 in the 

 interior of the county." 



In Yorkshire Mr W. Eagle Clark takes up the thread as 

 follows : — " I have gone into all the information I have 

 accumulated regarding the stockdove as a Yorkshire bird. I 

 find that very little indeed has been recorded in the natural 

 history periodicals on its wonderful increase in numbers 

 during the last half-century, and nearly all the information I 

 give you is derived from the lists I sent out prior to prepar- 

 ing the sketch on the birds of this county contained in the 

 handbook. 



" The first notice of the stockdove appears to be that of Mr 

 Thomas Allis, who in his report on Yorkshire birds, read at 

 the British Association at York in 1844 (in the preparation 

 of which he was assisted by the then Yorkshire ornithologists), 

 says that he himself has only seen one Yorkshire specimen, 

 that in the York Museum, which was shot near the city, but 

 that Mr Chapman had seen two or three exposed for sale in 

 York market in the winter of 1843, and that Mr Happenstall 

 informed him that it was not unfrequent near Sheffield. In 

 1877 a correspondent writes in the Field about its sudden 

 increase near York, but I have been unable to consult a file 

 of that journal. Now, this species is generally distributed 

 in the Vale of York, and breeds in holes in hedgerow trees, 

 etc. In 1844 it is noted as not being observed near Barnsley, 



