Common Wild Birds of the Scarborough District. 357 



before February nth, although continued until Christmas, I have heard 

 the ordinary song as early as 2--18 a.m. and as late as S-21 p.m. The site 

 chosen for nesting is very variable. I have found it in brambles and 

 herbage, furze bushes, haystacks, walls, quarries, under bridges and once 

 under some planks placed over an open grave in a cemetery. Fifteen 

 feet above ground is the highest position that I have seen occupied, 

 (xreatly varied are the materials used ; dead leaves and fern, moss, feathers, 

 twigs, wool, hay, straw, hair, dead herbage stems including thistle, rabbit- 

 fur and skeleton leaves of the poplar. Usually six, sometimes seven, eggs 

 are laid and April i6th is my earliest date for finding them. They average 

 in weight -05 oz. I have only one theory, and that little supported, to 

 account for the so-called ' cocks ' nests which have no feather lining, and 

 that is that they are, at least sometimes, perhaps weeks after making, 

 finished and used matrimonially. One such nest found on February 

 14th contained a number of the green leaf buds of the honeysuckle, not 

 necessarily placed there by a Wren, but possibly the work of some small 

 mammal. 



*The Tree Creeper [Certhia faniiiiaris L.). A common resident bird 

 in our best old woods, of deciduous or pine trees it sometimes visits our 

 valley park. Such a very quiet and dull-coloured creature and so mouse- 

 like in its movements it is scarcely ever seen by those who are unfamiliar 

 with the ways of birds. Its nest of bark, dead leaves and feathers I have 

 not found containing more than six eggs : the weight of one is -045 oz. 

 The nest site is usually a hole or crevice in a tree stump up to seven feet 

 above ground, often it is placed under a loose flap of bark. 



(To be continued). 



YORKSHIRE BOTANISTS. 



By the kind invitation of the Leeds Co-operative Naturalists' Club, the 

 Botanical Section of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union met in their con- 

 venient and comfortable room in Albion Street. 



After reading letters of apologies for absence, the reports of the Botan- 

 ical, Bryological and Survey Secretaries were considered and accepted, 

 the date for the 1919 meeting was arranged for Saturday, October nth, 

 and place Leeds. It was decided to ask permission of the Executive to 

 form a committee to deal with phanerogamic botany, apart from the 

 Survey work, and the officers for this and the Survey Committee were left 

 over to the annual meeting. Mr. W. Falconer then read a paper on the 

 present flora of the Colne Valley, dealing with the alien plants and new 

 introductions of various sorts. Miss Elsie D. Whitaker dealt with the 

 distribution of Pinus in Yorkshire peat deposits. Dr. T. W. Woodhead 

 showed specimens of Carrigeen Moss as collected and when bleached, and 

 gave some particulars of the work being done in response to the Red Cross 

 Society's requests. 



Mr. R. Barnes brought a number of microscope slides of complete 

 moss and hepatic plants and also portions of peristomes, etc. ; these were 

 shown with the microscope kindly provided by the Naturalists' Club. 

 Mr. Barnes' work has long been known to the Bryologists and this gave 

 the botanists an opportunity of seeing what can be done by an expert at 

 this work. Mr. C. Waterfall showed a rare Viola from Scoska Wood, Arn- 

 clifFe. — C. A. Cheetham. 



We much regret to hear of the death of Lieut. Ciraham Johns, the 

 second son of ]Mr. Cosmo Johns, F.G.S., of Sheffield. He was gazetted 

 to the Scots Guards in December, 1916, and killed in action on September 

 27th. He was only 20 years of age. He occasionally accompanied his 

 father on excursions of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union. 



1918 Nov. 1. 



