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ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM N.W. YORKSHIRE. 

 By John E. Tinkler. 



The district in which these notes have been made may be 

 roughly described as that portion of Yorkshire through which 

 the upper waters of the Swale, together with its several tribu- 

 taries, take their course. 



It is a wild and picturesque tract of mountainous country, 

 reaching its greatest elevation in Shunner Fell, 2351 feet above 

 the level of the sea, and consists for the most part of extensive 

 stretches of moorland, of grassy slopes, and grey limestone 

 scars, diversified by numerous deep ravines called gills, the sides 

 of which often form a continuous line of lofty rocks, at whose 

 base generally runs a clear stream, which every now and then 

 takes a leap over some impeding rock, thus forming many small 

 and beautiful waterfalls, locally called forces. 



A district of so varied a character as this naturally leads one 

 to expect a rich and numerous avifauna, nor has one to look in 

 vain, for in the short time during which my observations have 

 been made more than a hundred different species of birds have 

 rewarded my research ; besides some twenty or thirty others, 

 which I have marked as doubtful. 



To begin with the birds of prey. The Osprey, Pandion 

 halicectus, has several times been observed on the Swale below 

 Richmond ; above that place I have only one note of its occur- 

 rence. About three or four years ago one was seen frequenting 

 the Swale near Ellerton, and, though several attempts were 

 made to shoot it, I am glad to say that it finally escaped. 

 This district seems especially attractive to that rarer British 

 bird of prey, the Gyrfalcon, Falco candicans, for within the past 

 few years no less than four instances of its occurrence have been 

 noted. In either 1879 or 1880 near the Eoe Beck, in Arken- 

 garth Dale, one was observed to pounce upon and carry off a 

 Grouse, within gunshot of the person who witnessed the circum- 

 stance. Another, an immature specimen, was shot in the early 

 spring of 1877, or thereabouts, on the edge of Ellerton Moor, 

 while in pursuit of a Woodcock. The other two were shot in 

 some scars at the extreme end of Swaledale, almost upon the 

 Westmoreland boundary. I have not seen these birds myself, 



