THE ZooLocist—ApRriL, 1876. 4861 
A few Rough Notes from Beverley for the Close of the Year 1875. 
By F. Boyes, Esq. 
THE close of the year was not remarkable in an ornithological 
point of view. East Yorkshire escaped the severe frosts and heavy 
falls of snow that were pretty general throughout the rest of the 
United Kingdom; indeed we had no snow worth mention, and the 
frost was never keen enough to freeze fairly over the floods in the 
carrs, nor was the ice at any time sufficient to bear on the shallow 
waters left from the floods. This district shared the fate of many 
others in the country: the river overflowed its banks, inundating 
the low-lying carrs for miles; and, as usual on such occasions, we 
were visited by large flocks of gulls, principally the common and 
blackheaded species—a large proportion of them immature birds. 
These carrs are annually visited by vast flocks of peewils, and they 
were more numerous than ever this autumn. I think we had an 
increase of golden plovers, too; also numbers of dunlins. The 
latter birds, though very wild in the daytime, can be approached 
as near as you please in the dusk of the evening: they are not worth 
a charge of powder at any time, but their lively motions, as they 
run along the edges and swim across the small pools of water, are 
very interesting: they are very active little fellows. The gulls 
could be seen arriving in straggling parties shortly after daybreak, 
and in the evening rising in a great body, or two or three large 
flocks, and going straight away, apparently towards the Humber. 
Whilst the water lasted we had a nice lot of ducks, but it was 
difficult to get near them ; they were all, or nearly all, the common 
wild duck. Pochards, teal, &c., have been most unusually scarce, 
so much so that I have not seen a teal all the winter, and I attri- 
bute the scarcity of pochards, &c., on the river to the weather here 
not being severe enough, as the river was in grand order for them, 
not having a particle of ice on it. 
Shorteared owls were unusually abundant, and our local bird- 
stuffer, Mr, Richardson, was fully occupied for weeks in making 
them into “screens,” &c. An eagle was seen near the village of 
Easington for the greater part of the month of October, and a few 
buzzards and a peregrine or two were also observed in the same 
neighbourhood, but they made no stay. 
Altogether there. appears to have been scarcely anything worth 
SECOND SERIES—VOL. XI. S 
