81 
VERTEBRATES OF THE WESTERN AINSTY. 
EDGAR R. WAITE, F.L.S., 
Sub-Curator of the Leeds Museum, and one of the 
Honorary Secretaries of the Vorkshire Naturalists’ Union. 
Professor NewTon writes :—‘The good effects of ‘‘ Faunal” works such as those 
named in the foregoing rapid survey none cat i ‘*Every kingdom, every 
province, should have its own monographer,” wrote Gilbert W 
one hundred years ago, and experience has proved the truth of 
(Encl. Brit., oth Edition, vol. xviii. p. 1 
° 
i=} 
his assertion.’ 
‘THE liberty of the honour of the Ainsty of the County of the City 
of York’ consists of the country lying between the Nidd and the 
Wharfe, bounded on the east by the Ouse, and on the west by 
a line drawn from the Nidd at Cattal Lodge to a point on the 
Wharfe about a mile East of Wetherby. 
A line drawn due north and south fromWilstrop to Tadcaster 
cuts off a Western half, which is practically the area embraced by 
the present paper. 
The district includes Ingmanthorpe, Walton, Thorp Arch, Wighill, 
Tadcaster, Healaugh, Bilton, Bickerton, Tockwith, Marston Moor, 
and Wilstrop. Observations made near Cowthorpe, North and Kirk 
Deighton, Wetherby, Boston Spa, and Newton Kyme (all of which 
lie just beyond the Ainsty boundaries) are, however, included. 
Geologically speaking, the district is divisible by a diagonal line 
(running from Cowthorpe through Wighill to Tadcaster) into two 
distinct areas, that lying to the north-east of this diagonal consisting 
of the ‘Triassic rocks and overlying alluvial deposits of the Vale of 
York, and that lying to the south-west including the Magnesian 
Limestones and Marls of the Permian series. 
Physically, the district is flat and somewhat low-lying, it averages 
about 80 feet above the sea-level, and the elevations are few and 
inconsiderable. Some idea of the general low-lying nature of the 
Ainsty may be gathered from the fact that the two rivers which form 
its eastern and southern boundaries are tidal for a portion of their 
course through the district. The tidal influence extends as high as 
Naburn on the Ouse, and as far as Tadcaster on the Wharfe. 
The district forms part of the drainage areas of the Nidd and the 
Wharfe, and a line drawn from the Wharfe at Wetherby will touch 
the Nidd at Walshford Bridge, a distance of only four miles. 
Both rivers, and particularly the Wharfe, are subject to rapid 
floods. The Wharfe has been known to rise three feet in an hour ; 
March x89. r 
