2iS Field Note. 



thicker edges of which are minutely worked, the natural edges 

 being left untouched. Most of the various well-known forms 

 have been found on the Risby Warren, the tapering, shouldered 

 variety predominating. 



The hammer-stones previously referred to are improvised 

 from small glacial erratics, which are strewn in quantities over 

 the surface of the Ironstone area. Several of these small 

 boulders, flat and elongated, have been ground at the ends to 

 a cutting edge, forming implements which have characteristics 

 belonging to both the hammer-stone and the finished celt. 

 Some polished celts have also been found, and may be seen in 

 the Scunthorpe Museum, together with a large collection of 

 flint implements. 



Tt will be seen from the foregoing notes what a ' Happy 

 hunting ground ' Risby Warren is. The fascination of flint 

 hunting on its wind-scarred slopes is heightened by the spice 

 of uncertainty which surrounds the place. A little patch of 

 ground, discovered by some lucky chance, may continue to 

 yield its implements for some time, when, with a sudden turn 

 of the wind, it is gone, buried inches deep in the driven sand. 



Food of Tawny Owl. — I have been to-day to look at the 

 nest of a Tawny Owl built on the ground in the Gait Stock 

 Valley, which contained two young ones. They were lying 

 just outside the nest, the hindquarter of a young Mistle Thrush, 

 the hindquarter of an adult Song Thrush, the hindquarter of 

 a young rabbit, two Common Shrews, three Wood Mice, two 

 of which were headless, two Field Voles, and one which I 

 take to be a Bank Vole. It may be, however, a variety of the 

 Field Vole, but it has a relatively longer tail, and the colour 

 of the buck is redder than the typical Field Vole and is somewhat 

 smaller. It used to be thought that Owls would not eat the 

 Common Shrew, but I can hardly bring myself to believe that 

 these had been brought to the nest, presumably by the male 

 bird, other than for a utilitarian purpose. I suggested that 

 the Food Controller ought to be sent to limit its prey, at least 

 to the furred tribes. It will take a number of years — and 

 favourable years — before we can hope to see many of our 

 resident birds — especially the Song Thrush (the hardest hit 

 bird in this district by the winter of 1916-17 in their normal 

 numbers. The only other instance of the Tawny Owls' nesting 

 on the ground in this neighbourhood was in a rabbit burrow, 

 but this was over twenty years ago. One could not have 

 wondered at this, had there being a lack of more natural 

 breeding places. — E. P. Butterfield, Bank House, Wilsden, 

 May i6th, 1918. 



Naturalist, 



