496 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



Yorkshire," informed the naturalists of his day that there 

 were but some half-dozen examples known in the county 

 (a specimen shot at the Teesmouth in 1837, now in Mr. 

 Turton's possession at Upsall, appears to have been unknown 

 to him) ; in 1866 the late W. W. Boulton, writing from 

 Beverley, mentioned that it occurred there sparingly, and 

 that he had only had four or five specimens in the course 

 of five years (Zool. 1867, p.543), and Mr. Howard Saunders, 

 in the 4th Edition of Yarrell (1885, Vol. iii. p. 23), and also in 

 his " Manual " (2nd Ed. 1899), describes it as only a straggler 

 on migration north of Sheffield. The evidence supplied, 

 however, tends to prove that it is now a regular summer 

 visitant, nesting in some localities where it was previously 

 unknown, and annually in several districts in the eastern 

 half of the county, while in all probability it is gradually 

 becoming more widely diffused. At the present time its 

 nesting area may be defined as being on the eastern side 

 of a line passing through the centre of the county by Ripon, 

 Harrogate, Leeds, and Wakefield, to Sheffield. 



It now remains to discuss the distribution of the bird within 

 this area, commencing at the southern limit of its Yorkshire 

 range. For several years past it has nested in the neighbour- 

 hood of Sheffield, and, according to my correspondents in that 

 district, does so still ; the late W. Talbot, in his " Birds of 

 Wakefield " (1876), did not mention it, though Mr. G. Parkin 

 states that it now occurs in the nesting season. Near Don- 

 caster its nest has been found in Wheatley Wood, and it 

 breeds sparingly, but increasingly, in the Ackworth neighbour- 

 hood, while at Skipwith and at Pocklington it was reported 

 to me as nesting in 1894. It has for some years bred 

 annually at Kipling Cotes, South Dalton Park (the seat of 

 Lord Hotham), and Market Weighton, and is increasing. 

 Mr. W. H. St. Quintin, writing in 1902, says the Turtle- 

 Dove was unknown to him in his nesting days, being first 

 heard at Scampston about 1885, later still at Lowthorpe, 

 and now each year it is found at both places. At the end 

 of May 1900, he saw five together in a field at Scampston, 

 and in 1897 knew of six pairs in the plantations there. A 



