^° FIELD NOTES. 



BOTANY. 

 Abundance of Wild Fruits in the Harrogate district. — 



There has been an extraordinary abundance of wild fruits in this 

 district, during the autumn of 191 1. Acorns I never saw so 

 plentiful, the ground under the trees has literally been carpeted 

 by fallen acorns, many of unusually large size. Sweet chesnuts 

 have ripened for the first time for many years, and in one wood 

 I am familiar with the ground was covered with the fallen fruit. 

 The wild rose trees have had an abundance of fruit, but the 

 hawthorns have been deficient. Walnut trees have been laden 

 with fruit, and holly trees are at the present time one mass of 

 red berries. — R. Fortune, Harrogate, Nov. 1911. 



BIRDS. 



Black Redstart in Yorkshire.— On October i8th, 1911, 

 a single specimen of the Black Redstart — a male — was seen 

 near Knavemere in the upper part of the valley of the Hodder. 

 The bird was tame, and allowed the observer to approach 

 within a few yards. The black breast and white patches on the 

 wings were vrry noticeable. — M. N. Peel, Newton-in-Bowland. 



Uncommon Birds at Hebden Bridge. — On November 

 2ist a Little Auk, 9, was picked up aUve at Blackshawhead, near 

 Hebden Bridge. It had been seen in the neighbourhood for three 

 or four weeks, and was often ' put up ' from a small pond which 

 had formed in a field. On November 23rd, a Rough-legged 

 Buzzard, $, was shot in the act of killing a fowl at Shackleton 

 Hill, near Hebden Bridge. The taxidermist informs me that the 

 specimen weighed 2 lbs. loj ozs., was 23 inches long, and 4 feet 

 7 inches across the wings. Its stomach contained the remains 

 of a fowl and a weasel. My records show that some of both 

 species have been obtained at Hebden Bridge before, but not 

 during the life of the Literary and Scientific Society. I saw 

 a party of half-a-dozen Bullfinches, ^ and $, in Spring Wood, 

 on November 25th. This species is of very rare occurrence 

 here now, and has not been known to nest for many years. — 

 Walter Greaves, Hebden Bridge. 



ENTOMOLOGY. 



A^ Rare Parasitic Hymenopteron at Pilling- Moss, near 

 Qarstang, Lancashire. — While collecting Coleoptera on Pil- 

 ling Moss, near Garstang, in August, I came across several 

 specimens of Chorda inepta Dalm., one of the Chalcididse, a 

 family of parasitic Hymenoptera. I am indebted to the 

 kindness of Mr. Claude Morley for the identification of the 

 species. The specimens were found on shaking the old nests 

 of sea-gulls, with which Pilling Moss abounds. Although first 

 recorded as British as far back as 1833, by Westwood, the 

 species is still comparatively rare. — J. Ray Hardy, Curator 

 of Entomology, Manchester Museum. 



Naturalist, 



