YORKSHIRE NATUR/VLISTS' UNION. 



Two well-attended meetings of the A'ertebrate Section of the Union were 

 held at the Leeds Institute on the afternoon and evening of February 19th, 

 when more than sixt}- members and associates assemliled from different 

 parts of the county, and a few from over the Lancashire border. Mr. 

 W. H. St. Quintin, J. P., ^LB.O.U., Chairman of the Wild Birds' and Eggs' 

 I'rotection Acts' Committee, presided at the afternoon meeting. 



Mr. Riley Fortune, F.Z.S., the Secretary of the latter Committee^ 

 reported that funds were coming in satisfactorily, and that several new 

 subscribers had been obtained by the Chairman. It was decided to re- 

 appoint bird watchers at Spurn and Hornsea during the nesting season, 

 and to take means to protect the Bempton Peregrine Falcons, and both the 

 breeding places of the Stone Curlew in Yorkshire. A resolution gi\-ing 

 the power jointly to the Chairman and Secretary of the Committee, of 

 using further funds in giving protection, or in taking proceedings against 

 offenders, was passed unanimously. 



Mr. W. Denison Roebuck, F.L.S., the Convener of the Mammals', 

 Reptiles', Amphibians' and Fishes' Committee, reported progress of that 

 Committee's work, and sketched out directions for future workers. 



Prof. C. J. Patten, M.A., M.D., exhibited, among other interesting 

 specimens, a young Wren, showing partial albinism ; a clutch of House 

 Sparrow's eggs, showing dimorphism in a marked degree, and the skin 

 of a Guillemot that was picked up on the shore near Dublin, in September, 

 which differed slightly in the beak, colouration, and mottling of the 

 axillary feathers, from the common type, and approached in resemblance 

 one distinct form of Brunnich's Guillemot, which the Professor had noticed 

 in North America. 



In the discussion which ensued, Mr. St. Quintin remarked upon the 

 very great extent to which the axillary feathers of Common Snipe vary. 

 Formerly he had saved many for an angling friend. He could not reconcile 

 this variation with sex, but had believed those with the darker ones were 

 young birds. Later he reared a nest of young Snipe in his aviaries, and 

 found that their axillaries were, on the contrary, very light coloured. Mr. 

 St. Quintin exhibited one-day-old chicks of the Little Bustard (the first 

 one hatched in an aviary in England), and of the Brush Turkey (Telegallas 

 lathami), the largest of the Megapodes or Mound birds. Their eggs are 

 laid in these mounds, and are hatched by the heat developed by the 

 decaying vegetable matter. The young when hatched have well developed 

 wings, capable of flight, and look after themsehes from the first. A youngf 

 Demoiselle Crane (a week old) was shewn, and the very noticeable shortness 

 of the tibia and metatarsus at this age commented upon, which is in great 

 contrast to the leg development later in life. 



Mr. ^V. Hewett exhibited a pair of Vipers taken on Strensall Common in 

 1 88 1, and stated that though not so common as formerly, yet they still 

 occur there, in spite of the military occupation and manoeuvres. 



INIr. A. Haigii Lumby exhibited the skin of a monster tabby cat, recently 

 killed in a feral state near Ripon, where its poaching exploits had been 

 notorious for several years. It was pointed out that with the exception of 

 the shape of its tail and a few minor details, it might easily have been mis- 

 taken for a genuine British Felis catus, and that in cases like this it was not 

 surprising that country people, and even gamekeepers, were mistaken 

 and reported what the}- believed to be Wild Cats. 



Mr. H. B. Booth exhibited and commented upon a very fine melanic 

 Water Vole, sent to him by Mr. T. Roose from neai" Bolton Abbey, and from 

 a colony that had been known to exist for over seventy years. It was 

 believed locally to be a colony of old British Black Rats. 



Mr. W^ H. Parkin then read a paper dealing with the ' Reported Won- 

 derful Records of Young Cuckoos when but a few days old.' Mr. Parkin 

 doubts the ability of the tiny infant of a day or two in age to throw out its 



1 9 1.0 Mar. I. 



