Birds. 9489 



Kittiwake. — Kittiwakes are unusually numerous this winter. They 

 keep together in flocks, and are now always to be found where sillocks 

 are most abundant. The greater number are adults. 



Henky L. Saxby. 



Baltasound, Shetland, November 30, 1864. 



Ornithological Notes from Beverley, East Yorkshire. 

 By W. W. BouLTON, Esq. 



Wild Geese. — I observed a letter in the 'Times,' last month, from 

 the Rev. F. O. Morris, in which he remarks the unusual scarcity of 

 wild geese seen in or passing over the district in which he resides 

 (Nunburnholme, near York). I can bear out this remark to the letter, 

 having only heard or seen a single flock, which passed over Beverley 

 one dark December morning, flying so low as to render their 

 colouring quite distinct. This appears the more remarkable, as we 

 have the sea on one side, the Humber on another side, and the Wolds 

 (their favourite feeding-grounds) on a third side of us ; so that we 

 natui'ally might expect to see and hear many during each season. 

 Indeed I never recollect a year, before the last, to have passed away 

 without recognizing over and over again their noisy and striking flights 

 to and from their feeding-grounds. Often, too, have I paused, on my 

 evening rounds, to enjoy their incessant cackle overhead, long after 

 their shadowy forms had been rendered invisible by the shades of 

 night. Several geese, both whitefronted and bean geese, have been 

 shot by the punt-men on the Humber, and, I understand also, an 

 unusual number of wild ducks, pochards, &c. The whitefronted 

 goose {Anser albifrons) is not often met with in this neighbourhood ; 

 but during the present season of 1864-65, several have been shot on 

 the Humber, one of which, a well-marked old female, 1 had the 

 pleasure of examining at Mr. Richardson's, of Beverley, to whom it 

 had been sent for preservation. 



Late Swallows. — I see in the January number of the ' Zoologist ' 

 (Zool. 9418) two notices of the unusually late sojourn of this most 

 exquisite migrant in diffisrent parts of the country. I never knew 

 swallows remain with us so late as they did during the autumn of 

 1864, although their presence was occasional and exceptional, and not 

 the rule, the main body having left us somewhat earlier and more sud- 

 denly than usual. Most, if not all, of the late birds were birds of the 

 year. Both Hirundo rustica and H. urbica, in several instances, which 

 VOL. XXIII. P 



