INTRODUCTION. xliii 



though ranked in some county lists as residents of which 

 a few are found in the district throughout the year, but they 

 cannot be regarded as " residents " in the true sense of the 

 term, for the individuals remaining through the summer 

 are immature and non-breeding birds. These remarks are 

 applicable to (amongst other species) the Turnstone (of which 

 about a score remain at Spurn and Teesmouth throughout 

 the summer), Common Scoter, Common Gull, and Red- 

 throated Diver, all of which are to be found in more or less 

 numbers on or off the coast at all seasons. The fact of indi- 

 viduals remaining in this way is but an exceptional one, 

 not affecting the faunistic location of the species. 



In addition to the species at the present time regularly 

 breeding in the county, others must be mentioned as having 

 formerly nested annually, but which are now entirely banished 

 in consequence of persecution, or of the great changes wrought 

 in their former haunts ; and instead of being claimable as 

 members of the two classes which furnish the breeding species, 

 they can now only be ranked as Occasional or as Accidental 

 Visitants, of more or less rare occurrence. 



Such species include the Kite, which there can be no doubt 

 was once very abundant, but of whose breeding the information 

 is so meagre that only two actual instances can be cited. 

 The three Harriers, though local, were once fairly abundant, 

 the Hen Harrier perhaps, being the least so, though it is 

 now the most frequent as a casual visitant. The Marsh 

 Harrier, on the contrary, is now one of the rarest, whilst 

 Montagu's Harrier was the most widely distributed and the 

 last to linger on the Yorkshire Heaths. The Hobby, earlier 

 in the past century, was regarded as far from uncommon 

 in South Yorkshire, but it is now seldom seen, and only three 

 instances of its breeding in the county can be cited. Although 

 the Bittern was formerly abundant, and doubtless bred in 

 the county, there is no positive record in existence of a nest 

 or eggs having been found. Regarding the Bustard, which 

 formerly had its most northern residence in Britain on the 

 Wolds of Eastern Yorkshire, all the information obtainable 

 has been amassed. The Shag, though now quite unknown 



