154 Protection of Wild Life in Yorkshire. 
stray from a certain distinct range. There has, however, 
been a tendency evinced by Nightingales of late years, to 
advance beyond their usual boundary in a westerly direction. 
The Grasshopper Warbler is a most uncertain bird, at no 
time very abundant. In some seasons it appears to be very 
thinly and evenly distributed over the county, and then for 
several years in succession hardly a bird is to be seen or heard. 
It is a very shy and retiring bird, but its peculiar reeling note, 
is sufficiently distinctive to prevent their being overlooked. 
The Nuthatch probably reaches its northern limit in Yorkshire : 
it is another bird whose home life is seldom disturbed, but whose 
ranks never gain any additions. In the Harrogate district 1 
know about half-a-dozen nesting haunts, where they are never 
or very seldom interfered with, still for some unexplained 
reason they do not increase. The same remarks apply equally 
as well to the Tree Creeper, certainly much more numerous 
than the Nuthatch, and frequenting the same haunts. Probably 
they do not increase for the same reason I suggest with regard 
to the Goldcrest. 
The Nightjar, one of the latest of our summer visitors to 
arrive in Britain, is probably if anything scarcer than it used 
to be, it is certainly not more plentiful. Like all birds nesting 
on the ground, it is accessible to many enemies, which no 
doubt causes its numbers to remain at the best, stationary. 
On some of our highest hills the Dunlin nests. It isa charming 
and confiding little bird, found on the Humber mud flats in 
immense flocks during the autumn and winter months. These 
flocks however, are composed entirely of visitors from the 
Continent, our own birds probably going further south. One 
would naturally expect some few out of these great flocks to 
remain and nest, but such is not the case, the few pairs nesting 
on the hills never increase. Indeed, I really ought to have 
included the Dunlin in the ranks of those birds which are 
disappearing entirely from the county as nesting species. One 
old breeding haunt, the Tees mouth, has been entirely deserted 
by them. : 
(To be continued). 


-O: 
P. G. Ralfe contributes Manx Ornithological Notes to British Birds for 
April. 
The Zoologist for March contains some lengthy ‘Observations on the 
Feeding Habits of the Purple-Tipped Sea Urchin,’ by H. N. Milligan, 
and ‘the Yellow-Necked Mouse in Shropshire,’ by Frances Pitt. - 
The Entomologist for March contains: ‘ Notes on Aphididae found in 
Ants’ Nests’; ‘The Genus Ennomos, with an account of some of its 
Hybrids,’ by J. W. H. Harrison ; ‘ British Orthoptera,’ by W. J. Lucas; 
‘Ectopsocus briggst, Psocpteva,’ by T. A. Chapman, and ‘ The Larva Stage 
of Ancylis siculana,’ by W. G. Sheldon. 
_ Naturalist, 
