16 
YORKSHIRE ZOOLOGISTS AT LEEDS. 
A. HAIGH-LUMBY. 
Mr. E. W. WADE presided at the meetings of the Vertebrate 
Section held in the Leeds Institute on November 20th, Igf5. 
The Annual. Reports for the West Riding, North and East 
Ridings, and York District, were presented respectively by 
Messrs. Booth, Wade and Smith, and that of the Wild Birds 
Committee was read by Mr. Booth, on behalf of Mr. J. Wilkin- 
son, the Secretary. 
Mr. W. H. Parkin was unanimously elected to the Presi- 
dency of the section. 
Mr. H. B. Booth exhibited a Cuckoo’s egg, sent by Mr. 
Rosse Butterfield, taken from nest of Twite in the Bradford 
District, an unusual host in that locality. 
An interesting collection of field notes was read by Mr. W. H. 
Parkin, comprising records of unusual varieties, peculiar nesting 
incidents, etc., which aroused a very interesting discussion. 
A paper was given by Mr. T. H. Fowler, entitled ‘ Obser- 
vations on the Sparrow Hawk and Long-Eared Owl.’ Of 
late, many valuable ‘ life histories ’ of different species of birds 
have been written, and the lecturer has been a diligent dis- 
ciple of this new school of naturalists, who rightly maintain 
that very little of the psychology and economy of any individual 
or family of birds can be learnt from stuffed specimens— 
however elaborately mounted. <A peculiarity of the Sparrow 
Hawk shared by other members of the ‘ Raptore’ family, was 
of great assistance when the quest of this particular species 
was decided upon. ‘Once a Merlin haunt, always a Merlin 
haunt,’ is an accepted truism, and the same applies to the 
subject of this paper. Although the pair of birds was destroyed 
two years in succession, yet a third came and occupied the 
same beat the next year, and with the forbearance of the 
keeper, observations were made and photographs taken cover- 
ing the whole period from the construction of the nest to the 
leave-taking of the young. 
The Long-Eared Owl, generally recognised as a confirmed 
‘tree’ breeder, has recently been noted to be somewhat 
wayward in this particular, and Mr. Fowler gave two instances 
coming under his observation: one nest containing five young 
about fourteen days old, and the other four young and one 
addled egg, on May 15th. In both cases the nest was on the 
ground. 
A fine series of photographs illustrating the home life of . 
both Sparrow Hawk and the Owl were shewn on the screen, 
supplemented by a series of the Crested Tit, taken in the 
Spey Valley last year, shewing the bird and nesting sites of 
this extremely local species. 
Naturalist, 
