84 



YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS' UNION : VERTEBRATE SECTION. 



I'ndcr the presidency of Mv. Oxley Grabham, two meetings of the 

 verebrate section were held on Saturday, February 17th, at the Leeds 

 Institute, and were attended by a large number of members. 



The afternoon meeting was devoted to discussions, and to the examina- 

 tion of specimens. "Sir. H. B. Booth .shpwed, for comparison, skins of the 

 marsh tit, and the newly claimed variety — the ' willow ' tit — obtained at 

 Bolton Abbey. ^Ir. Hewitt exhibited a case containing moles, one of 

 normal colour, the other a ligiit fa\vn. Mr. Butterworth showed the 

 skins of two birds taken in the Keighley district during the recent storm, 

 viz.. a Scla\^onic Grebe and a Little Auk. 



Discussions took place as to the appearance of so many Little Auks 

 inland recently ; and an ingenious theory was advanced by Mr. Booth, 

 who argued that on this occasion, at any rate, it was no question of the 

 birds being wind-driven, but that, in all probability, they mistook the 

 snow-clad land for their own Arctic regions, and flew in search of open 

 water, but in the wrong direction. Discussion also took place on the 

 possibility of inter-breeding between the real Wild Cat and the domestic 

 variety gone wild. In a letter, Mv. Claude Leatham pointed to the 

 serious increase of Magpies in his district, and many members furnished 

 confirmatory evidence ; the infested areas being the fringes of large towns, 

 where the holdings are small, and where the gamekeeper is not abroad. 

 The general feeling was that it is time for the protection of Magpies to be 

 withdrawn in the interests of other smaller birds, whose chances of rearing 

 broods are much reduced where Magpies are present in any numbers. 



]\Ir. John Holmes read a paper on ' Finds of Bones of Mammals in the 

 Lothersdale Cave,' and showed some interesting geological slices in order 

 to demonstrate that these bones had been washed into the fissure. Mr. 

 Sidney H. Smith described a very interesting set of slides illustrating many 

 of the gamekeeper's traps for keeping down those interesting creatures 

 known to the shooting fraternity as ' vermin ' (furred and feathered). 

 Mr. Riley Fortune and Mr. Forrest showed some excellent .slides of animal 

 and bird life ; and Mr. Jasper Atkinsoii had some slides of the birds of 

 Scilly ; the meeting closing with a short account by Mr. Booth of the claim 

 of Mr. J. M. Campbell, of the Bass Rock, to the discovery of barbs pointing 

 backwards upon the tongue of the Pufiin, which probably assist (in con 

 junction with the other barblets, noticed on the palette by Mr. C. J. King a 

 year or two ago), in holding fish after fish, while the bird catches others. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



To the Editors of 'The Xaturali.st.' 

 In Mr. Lees' kindly review of ' Types of British Vegetation,' appearing 

 in your January issue, there is an error which I ask your leave to correct. 

 He refers to ' neglect to acknowledge W. B. Crump as the contributor 

 of the six beautiful photographs making up plates 9, 13 and 25.' Mr. 

 Crump is duly recorded as the author of these photographs both in the 

 list of plates on p. xix. and also on the plates themselves. The reviewer 

 has e\idently been misled by tlie absence of Mr. Crump's name from the 

 list of gentlemen (Preface, p. ix.) to whom acknowledgment is made for 

 the contiibution of photographs ; but he has omitted to notice that these 

 are explicitly stated to be ' other than members of the committee.' All 

 members of the Briti-sh Vegetation Committee, of which my friend Mr. 

 Crump is a distinguished ornament, contributed all they could to the 

 work — whether photographs or information — as a matter of course, quite 

 apart from the actual authors of sections of the book. It would have been 

 impossible for me, as editor, to carry through successfully a very difficult task 

 if I had not been thus loj'ally and heartily supported by all my colleagues. 

 But to gentlemen who were not members of the Committee, and who 

 were good enough to allow their photographs to be used, special acknow- 

 ledgment seemed due.— .\. G. Tansiev, Botany School, Cambridge. 



Naturalist, 



