46 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



hair fern in a conservatory at Hull. Early nesting, too, 

 is very frequent in this species, but a single instance only need 

 be mentioned, the earliest I find noted, namely, a nest with 

 five eggs near York, on i8th January 1848 (Zool. 1848, p. 

 2019). Mid-March is the usual period on which nidification 

 may be said to commence, and occasionally unspotted eggs 

 are recorded. 



The tameness, or sociability, of the Robin is proverbial, 

 and I may here be permitted to recall an incident which 

 occurred when I was out in a N.E. gale, during the autumn 

 migration, waiting for wildfowl on the sand-hills near Redcar, 

 of a Robin, doubtless a migrant, perching on the end of my 

 gun barrels and remaining there for nearly a minute. Mr. 

 P. Loten of Easington had a brood reared in his garden which 

 would follow him about. 



Of interesting Yorkshire varieties the following may be 

 mentioned : A white one in the Tunstall Museum (Fox's 

 " Synopsis," p. 206) ; one, a bird of the year, procured on 

 5th October 1848, near Knaresborough, which had the whole 

 of the primaries and secondaries white, and the whole of the 

 tail feathers the same with the exception of the tips, which 

 were dirty grey or smoke colour (Zool. 1848, p. 2298) ; a 

 pale rufous example at Beverley (op. cit. 1877, P- 2 56)> and 

 another, a female, in the collection of Mr. P. Loten, of a 

 light fawn colour, with a breast a shade lighter than usual, 

 obtained near Patrington on 27th February 1884. Other 

 varieties in Yorkshire include a pied example at Easington, 

 at the latter end of 1884, also in Mr. Loten's collection, and 

 another at Harrogate (Nat. 1887, p. 78). An albino specimen, 

 captured at Sedbergh in 1897, was kept alive for two years. 

 White, or creamy white, examples were noted at Malton 

 on 5th January 1885 ; Egton Bridge, near Whitby, December 

 1895 ; Selby, 1897 ; and a tame one in the gardens at Cliffe 

 Castle, Keighley, which paired with a bird of the normal 

 colour (Yorkshire Weekly Post, ijih December 1903). 



Various superstitions are prevalent among country farm 

 folks in some parts of Yorkshire as regards this bird ; the 



