Birds. 9593 



this long cold spring, I observed constant evidences of the approaching 

 breeding season amongst several species of our hardy native birds. 

 Thus the rooks with noisy clamour greeted the few straggling rays of 

 sunshine that reminded them how soon their busiest days would come, 

 and by the middle of the month our rookeries were well filled with 

 nests. I disturbed many pairs of partridges, too, that seemed only 

 waiting for the leafy hedgerows and grassy banks to hide away their 

 cherished offspring. Hedge accentors chased each other from twig to 

 twig, and along ihe bottoms of the naked fences. Yellowhammers 

 and blackbirds, too, might be seen in pairs ; and the lapwings or green 

 plovers had returned to the dry fallows and stubbles in search of their 

 future nesting-places. On the 22nd of March I saw a nest of the 

 missel thrush, nearly completed, on the fork of a sycamore branch ; a 

 gamekeeper patient of mine had seen the birds building, and called my 

 attention to the nest. 



Golden Plover. — These birds usually leave us before the breeding 

 season, although in the winter time hundreds of them may be seen, 

 mingled with the lapwings, on chosen feeding-grounds. I have ob- 

 served that these birds appear to select two or three fields, generally 

 of young wheat, on which they feed in preference to others ; and here 

 they may be seen almost any day during the period of their sojourn in 

 -this neighbourhood. Several years ago a Mr. Bell, of Beverley, shot 

 a fine old male of this species, with the perfectly black breast of the 

 breeding or nuptial plumage, in the midst of the breeding season, on 

 one of our common pastures close to the town of Beverley : it was 

 with another, probably a female, and T have no doubt they were 

 nesting with us : this bird is now in my collection. On the 9lh of 

 March, Mr. F. Boyes, of Beverley, shot an adult male of the golden 

 plover on Swine Moor, the pasture or common where ray own speci- 

 men was shot : this bird was changing its winter for its summer dress ; 

 it was in company wiih several others : the remainder have not been 

 seen since that I know of, and are the last that have visited the 

 immediate neighbourhood of Beverle}'. 



Great Crested Grebe.— Ou the 10th of March I received, in the 

 flesh, three splendid mature specimens of this fine grebe, a male and 

 two females, the latter containing ova in a very forward stage of 

 development These birds had been shot on a private water within a 

 few miles of Beverley, and are the first I have had in the flesh, 

 although I had previously in my collection an immature specimen, 

 shot a few years ago on the River Hull. 



70L. XXIII. 2 E 



