236 Yorkshire Naturalists at Malton. 
captive Pintails this season to induce it to remain. Another 
feature of interest at Scampston, was that the heronry on the 
island in the lake, which four or five years ago had become 
reduced to a single nest, and looked like becoming extinct, 
had now revived. There were six, or possibly seven occupied 
nests this season. 
Welham Park Lake was visited, on which were noted ten 
pairs of Tufted Ducks, many Coots and a single female Teal. 
A pleasing feature of the visit to Castle Howard was the 
comparative abundance of Woodpeckers—both the Greater 
Spotted and the Green. Mr. Jefferson, of Castle Howard, 
who kindly acted as guide, pointed out an interesting episode, 
that the Woodpeckers had taken the galls from oak trees 
and inserted them in the deep grooves of the bark for the 
purpose of extracting the grub in the gall. The galls were 
inserted in the grooves in exactly the same way as a Nuthatch 
would insert nuts, and on some of the old Oak trees, there 
were strings of Oak galls in different grooves. Mr. Jefferson 
had never seen the Nuthatch there, nor has he ever actually 
observed the Woodpeckers performing this operation, although 
he was convinced by many reasons that it was the result of 
their work—one being that a pair of Woodpeckers had nested 
in a tree that had a great many galls fixed in its bark. 
I asked Mr. Jefferson to try to confirm this as an actual 
observation. On the lake were five Great Crested Grebes, 
Coots, about twenty pairs of Tufted Ducks, and Mr. Jefferson 
informed me that there were a few Pochards, but these I failed 
to see, possibly owing to the very rough surface that prevailed, 
the date being rather early for many immigratory species of birds. 
Up to our arrival at the lake at Castle Howard. we only noticed 
several Chiffchafis, many Willow Warblers and a single Swallow. 
Over the lake at Castle Howard were scores of Swallows, several 
Sand Martins, a few House Martins, and, greatly to our surprise, 
ten to a dozen Swifts. This early arrival of the Swift in 
numbers bears out my remarks on previous occasions that 
the Swift has been arriving much earlier during the last few 
years, than formerly* (See ‘ The Naturalist’ 1916, p. 34). 
Sparrow Hawks are certainly more common in this district 
than they are in most parts of Yorkshire. They were noted 
at Rillington, Malton and at Castle Howard. Jays were both 
numerous and noisy near to the lake at Castle Howard. The 
five species of mammals, one amphibian and three species of 
fishes observed were not notable, unless it be that a fine Tench 
was lying dead on the bank of the lake at Castle Howard. 
(To be continued). 

* On April 29th, I saw eight to ten Swifts circling high over Bolton 
Abbey. On the same date The Field states that Swifts are reported from 
all parts of the country much earlier than usual. 
Naturalist, 

