The Zoologist — August, 1868. 1317 



or near the Rhine : — Gonepteryx Rhatnni, Anthocharis Cardainines, 

 Vanessa Cardui, V. Atalanta, V. Io, V. Antiopa, V. Urticae, several spe- 

 cies of Argynnis, Polyoramatus Phlaeas and Lycaena Alexis; many of 

 these must, of course, have been hybernated specimens. The cock- 

 chaffer was extremely plentiful throughout Germany this spring, and 

 enormous numbers were destroyed, a reward being paid for them by 

 the authorities. 



Edward R. Alston. 



Stuukbriggs, Lesmabagow, N. B., 

 July, 1868. 



Notes on the Ornithology of Spurn Point. 

 By John Cordeaux, Esq. 



The position of Spurn Point, projecting two miles beyond the 

 Yorkshire coast-line, bordered on the one side by the North Sea, 

 on the other by the estuary of the Humber, here forming a deep 

 and well-sheltered bay, offers many attractions to the wandering 

 naturalist. 



The Point itself is little more than an island of sand and shingle 

 formed by the waste of the Yorkshire coast ; for along all this coast- 

 line of Holderness, from Spurn to Flamborough, the sea is ever 

 encroaching on the land, slowly eating it up, at the computed average 

 rate of two and a half yards in the year. To this waste the present 

 Spurn Point owes its existence, as the debris of the boulder-clay and 

 gravel cliffs is carried downward by the tidal current and deposited 

 in banks and shoals of shingle at Spurn. The "island" of Spurn is 

 connected with the main land by a narrow ridge of sand-hills, two 

 miles in length — a great natural break-water and a guage by which 

 we may estimate the waste of Holderness. Occasionally, with a high 

 tide accompanied with a gale of wind, the wild North Sea makes a 

 clean sweep across this sandy barrier into the estuary of the Humber, 

 causing a breech to be repaired at a great expense by stone brought 

 from the chalk cliffs beyond Hull. The light-house stands in the 

 centre of the so-called "island," and is protected from any possible 

 attack of the sea by a strong mass of masonry and concrete, like a 

 circular fort: around this cluster the ever-shifting sand dunes, sloping 

 away to the banks of shingle which seaward descend rapidly into 

 deep water. Landing from a boat is at all times somewhat difficult, 



