NIGHTINGALE. 9I 



— a statement that has been reproduced in every book treating 

 on British birds down to the present time. 



In 1881, when I came to investigate the dates and make 

 further enquiries regarding the haunts of this species for the 

 bird-portion of Mr. Roebuck's and my joint work on the Yorkshire 

 Vertebrata, I found that there was evidence of its occurrence and 

 breeding in localities considerably further north of the ancient 

 city referred to. This led me to suppose that we were justified 

 in regarding this species as one of those which had gradually 

 extended its range northwards in the county during the past 

 hundred years. Further investigation, however, into Yorkshire 

 ornithology made known to me that such has really not been 

 the case, and it was with feelings of pleasure and of surprise 

 that I read the statement, made at least a century ago, of Mar- 

 maduke Tunstall, F.R.S. — a Yorkshire naturalist and one of the 

 best ornithologists of his day — which appears for some not easily 

 explainable reason to have escaped notice. Writing to Dr. 

 Latham, presumably about the year 1783, Tunstall remarks that 

 'The nightingale is never heard or seen here [Wycliffe, in Tees- 

 dale]. It is frequently heard near Boroughbridge, about 37 miles 

 farther south ; and a few miles farther, near Abberford, particu- 

 larly at Hazlewood, the seat of Sir Walter Vavasor, is extremely 

 lavish in song. . . ,' This statement of Tunstall's is true 

 to-day, for my friend the Rev. E. P. Knubley, M.A., rector of 

 Staveley, near Boroughbridge, informed me that a pair nested 

 in Gibbet Wood, two miles from Staveley, in 1870; that in 

 1 88 1 a pair nested and reared their young in his rectory garden; 

 and that he was told on reliable authority that a pair nested in 

 Loftus Fox Cover in the parish, a mile from his house, in 1883. 

 Boroughbridge, it may be remarked, is ten miles north of the 

 latitude of York and lies sixteen miles north-west of that city. 



In occasional instances, however, it has been known to 

 visit during recent years slightly more hyperborean districts, but 

 it is possible, and even probable, that these exceptional visits 

 were also made in the far past, when, as it is important to remem- 



