STONE CURLEW. 563 



lovers of the lonely sheep-walks, were restricted to the 

 remnants of these once famous downs, and as these became 

 more and more circumscribed they were banished altogether, 

 and what were once the uncultivated uplands are now waving 

 cornfields. There were, however, still some portions, here 

 and there, which were used as rabbit warrens, and in these 

 the Stone Curlew continued to breed up to about 1874, when 

 it finally ceased to do so, and it is now almost extinct in its 

 old haunts. 



The Stone Curlew at one time bred on the Hambleton Hills 

 in North Yorkshire, though its present breeding grounds are 

 confined to one or two localities in the East Riding and one 

 in the North, the latter being the northerly limit of its nesting 

 range in the British Isles, and the exact whereabouts of which 

 are, in the interests of the birds themselves, not specifically 

 pointed out further than by indicating that the boundaries 

 of the two Ridings named include the breeding area as at 

 present known. 



A recent instance of its nesting in south-east Yorkshire 

 has been communicated to me by Mr. J. H. Gurney, who, 

 writing on I5th May 1902, says, " You may be interested to 

 know that on loth May Mr. Hugh Buxton found a nest and 

 two eggs of the Norfolk Plover. He first saw a fox, which 

 put the bird up, and that led to the discovery of the eggs." 



In several other parts of north and east Yorkshire it has 

 been observed at intervals when on passage to and from 

 its nesting quarters ; so long ago as 1845 J. Hogg recorded one 

 between Saltburn and Brotten, and it has been once observed 

 at both the Tees and Humber estuaries. In the west of 

 the county it is a rare straggler ; a pair in the collection 

 of the Rev. G. D. Armitage was inadvertantly killed in the 

 summer of 1865, on Crossland moor, near Huddersfield ; one 

 was taken on Coniston moor, in Craven, in August 1866, 

 another at Bilton, near Harrogate, about 1865, and one was 

 seen on Malham Ings about the end of April, 1895. 



The Stone Curlew takes its departure in September or 

 October ; on the gth of the latter month, in 1874, a flock of 

 about forty was seen on rough grass land at Ganton, evi- 



