NOTES FROM YORKSHIRE. 357 
generally mobbed by its normal brethren. A pair of Swallows at 
Hasington produced three clutches of eggs. The first was 
removed, owing to the site chosen for the nest being inconvenient. 
The others produced young, the last of which left their nest on 
the 3rd October. 
The first immigrants among the shore birds were the Turn- 
stone and the Dunlin, which arrived on the 28th July. Knots in 
immature plumage were observed on the 18th August. At Spurn, 
on the 4th September, I noted Redshanks and Whimbrel on the 
muds, and a single Sanderling on the shore. A solitary Bar- 
tailed Godwit was killed with a stone in a field at Easington late 
in September, and was the only specimen observed in the district 
during the season. Bar-tails in other seasons are not uncommon 
there during the autumn and winter. An immature Little Gull 
was shot at Spurn on the 16th September, whilst in the company 
of numerous Common and Arctic Terns. A beautiful pair of 
Curlew Sandpipers were obtained at Kilnsea on the 20th, and are 
now in the collection of Mr. P. W. Lawton, of Easington. 
The Yorkshire coast came in for its share of the now his- 
torical visit of the Skuas, of which much has been already written. 
Mr. Alfred Roberts, of Scarborough, communicated to me some 
very interesting notes, which I think will be read with interest by 
ornithologists. Speaking of Buffon’s Skua, he informed me that 
five males and three females were brought to him for preservation, 
chiefly in mature plumage. These were as a rule obtained singly 
on the coast, but several were observed to frequent that part of 
Scarborough Bay where the main sewer discharges its contents. 
Here, in company with a few examples of the Pomatorhine 
species, they kept a sharp look-out for “eatables” which rose to 
the surface in escaping from the drain; there was a general rush 
for these tit-bits, which were eagerly fought for. One gentleman 
stated that on several occasions the larger Skuas were repeatedly 
seen to fly after the smaller species, and seizing their long tail 
feathers snip them off. The Pomatorhines were also seen to 
chase each other for the same purpose, and the smaller ones also. 
This was probably done to impede the rapid evolutions of the 
birds, and to enable the unmaimed to secure their food with 
greater certainty. Be this as it may, in the specimens that have 
come under my notice I have remarked that although the plumage 
has been quite mature, still the longer tail-feathers have been 
