ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM BEVERLEY. 153 
near the shore, above high-water mark, and are easily recognisable, 
even at a distance, by their rising eight or nine feet above the level 
sand. They all contain heaps of rough stones, which may be the 
remains of the hut, but the bulk of the mound is composed of 
shells of such edible mollusks as Littorina littorea, Patella 
vulgaris, Cardium edule, &c. Bones also of the cow, horse, sheep 
and pig are common, and are almost always split up—an entire 
bone is rare. These shell-mounds are less rich in remains than 
those of the Hebrides, and they cannot claim to be of high 
antiquity; that they are not of yesterday, however, is clear from 
the fact that on the shore adjacent no periwinkles or limpets can 
now be got, and the oldest inhabitant has no tradition of their 
origin. Their probable date may be the fifteenth or sixteenth 
century. 
ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM BEVERLEY. 
By Frepericx Bovyss. 
A REMARKABLY cold and backward spring, with a long con- 
linuance of easterly winds, may account for the non-arrival in 
1876 of at least one summer migrant and the appearance in 
diminished numbers of some others. But whilst it deprived us of 
these, it appeared so to check the northward migration of our 
winter birds that, in one or two instances, they found it convenient 
to remain and breed with us. To this cause, at least, I attribute 
the breeding of the Hooded Crow, Spotted Crake, and some other 
birds in this neighbourhood in the summer of 1876. 
Although I cannot say that we had any remarkable feature worth 
especial mention, we had nevertheless some very interesting occur- 
rences which were unusual and new to me. These were the 
breeding of the Redshank in three or four different localities; the 
nesting of the Red-backed Shrike, and that of the Spotted Crake, 
which latter fact, though not absolutely established, is so far proved 
that I think there is no doubt about it. 
My notices of the arrival of our spring migrants are very incom- 
plete, owing partly to the very cold weather, which prevented them 
giving their well-known notes, and partly to their great irregularity 
in arrival, so much so that in many cases I gave up looking for 
them. I do not at any time attach much importance to these 
x 
