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YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS AT BURNSALL. 
BURNSALL proved an admirable place for the gathering of the 
Union on the 7th June. The geologists assembled in strong 
force. Under the able guidance of Dr. Albert Wilmore they 
carried out the whole of their programme. The zoologists, led 
by Messrs. H. B. Booth and Thomas Roose, worked the valley 
of the Wharfe from Grassington to Burnsall, finishing the day 
in the woods and on the fells to the right of the Barden Road. 
Like the entomologists, they blamed the prevalent high wind 
for the paucity of their records. 
Under the guidance of Mr. C. A. Cheetham, the botanists - 
investigated Trollers Ghyll, passing over the moor to the left 
of the ghyll, and returning by way of the Hartlington Valley. 
The President of the Union, Mr. Harold Wager, F.R.S., 
took the chair at the meeting held at the close of the excursion, 
when sectional reports on the day’s work were presented, and 
thanks accorded to the Duke of Devonshire and Colonel Daw- 
son for permission to visit their estates ; to Mr. Riley Fortune 
for making.the local arrangements, and to the guides. 
VERTEBRATE ZooLocy.—Mr. H. B. Booth writes :— 
Mr. Roose set several small traps the day previously, at various 
altitudes near to Burnsall. These yielded the long-tailed 
Field Mouse, the Bank Vole and the Common Shrew. The 
Water Shrew was not taken; but plentiful evidence of its 
presence was seen by the number of scales and tails of small 
fishes near the entrances to its burrows. An unexpected 
‘catch,’ however, was in a trap that had been set in a small 
dell near to the village. It had been ‘sprung,’ and contained. 
the rough drawing, on a plain card, of a mouse with its mouth 
at the bait of cheese, and tied on with black hosiery yarn. 
Inscribed on the body of the mouse was a too familiar phrase 
about Votes, being no doubt a ‘joke.’ Pied Flycatchers were 
noted at about a mile below the village, near the point which 
marks the limit of its known breeding range in Wharfedale. 
Among other birds seen or heard were the Yellow and Grey 
Wagtails, Goldcrest, Bullfinch and Common Sandpiper. Quite 
close to the village was a Dipper’s nest, beautifully hidden in a 
small clump of ivy, at which the birds were feeding their young. 
A pair each of Sparrow Hawks and Magpies (both uncom- 
mon birds in this neighbourhood) were hung on the keeper’s 
‘gibbet,’ all recently shot. The Merlin ‘ground’ on which a pair 
of these birds has attempted to nest, and has as regularly been 
shot at the nest for two or three generations of game-keepers, 
is this season untenanted. A visit was paid to the top of the 
moor where Vipers are occasionally seen, and where they were 
formerly common. But in spite of the hot sun, the wind was so 
strong on these exposed parts that not a single Viper had 
1913 July 1. 
