9326 Birds. 
this, but for every bird they kill, they destroy a nest{of eggs or young in the cliffs 
above, and this with an intensity of destruction, as in the watering season (commencing 
as early as June) excursion trains are already extensively patronized, and the destruc- 
tion is thus committed upon parents of families, to which the taking of their first or 
second set of eggs is a comparative trifle. Col. Newman admits this, when he writes of 
having himself a “ tolerable,” and again “an excellent day’s sport amongst the birds,” 
and then observing that they are breeding “ until late in July.” As regards the taking of 
the eggs, the danger of obtaining them limits the climbers to a very small number,— 
this year, I believe, only four. These men, looking on it as a sort of monopoly, are as 
anxious for the preservation of the birds as any ornithologist can desire: they parcel 
out the line of cliffs amongst them at the opening of the season, each taking about a 
mile, and are as systematic in their mode of procedure as any Icelander in the collec- 
tion of the eider-down. They limit their descents over the same ground to two in 
number, not baring the cliffs entirely, but leaving rallying points for the birds to col- 
lect around again, and it is well known they will a third time renew the process of in- 
cubation without the number of eggs being seriously impaired. In the face of these 
facts, any action on the part of the landowners in preventing the taking of the eggs 
would unfortunately serve the cause only in an extremely partial degree; the high 
seas would continue open to all, and the boatmen below—who look upon the shooting 
parties as a large item of the summer's profits and the birds as one of their vested 
interests—would remain as open to the allurement of half-a-sovereign as before, 
although they one and all admit they are killing the goose for the sake of the golden 
eggs. Uria lacrymans, I will add in conclusion, always was a scarce bird.—N. F. 
Dobrée; Hull, October 8, 1864. 
Notes on the Ornithology of Flamborough.—Is not Colonel Newman mistaken when 
he speaks of the turnstone as common at Flamborough in July (Zovl. 9292). The 
turnstone is only a winter visitant to the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire coast, and then 
only in small parties, and is by no means common. As far as my own experience 
goes, it does not arrive on our shores before the latter part of August or early in 
September. Colonel Newman also speaks of the ducks “ which breed in May in these 
cliffs,” and of the cormorants “ which are numerous early in the season.” From strict 
inquiries made during a visit in that neighbourhood in July last, respecting the birds 
which visit these rocks in the spring, I did not hear of ducks of any species breeding 
there; and, although the cormorants formerly frequented these stupendous sea-cliffs 
in considerable numbers in the spring, I am afraid I am but too correct in saying that 
from constant persecution they have now ceased to do so, the appearance of an odd 
bird or so being considered an unusual occurrence. All will agree with Colonel New- 
man in his regrets on the destruction of the eggs of the sea-fowl; but this is a ques- 
tion which must rest with the landed proprietors in the neighbourhood, as they have 
doubtless the power to prevent the plunder of the eggs in the spring. Certain it is 
that should the present system of robbing the nests, and the wholesale slaughter of the 
birds during the summer, be continued some years longer, it will end in the extinction 
or banishment of those feathered tribes which now gladden the eyes of many a true 
lover of nature, and afford an additional attraction to the romantic scenery of this 
coast.—John Cordeaux ; Great Cotes, Ulceeby. 
Birds that sing as they Fly.—White, in his ‘ Natural History of Selborne’ (letter 
27), gives a list of birds that sing as they fly. This list comprises the sky lark, tit- 
lark, wood lark, blackbird, whitethroat, swallow and wren. To this list ought to be 
