IN MEMORIAM—JOHN HARRISON. 185 
I think that Pied Wagtails which spend the winter with us are 
darker in plumage than immigrants arriving in spring. A female 
I have, which haunted a bend in our river throughout the recent 
severe weather, has the ear coverts nearly black; the flank feathers 
are also much darker. 
In the foregoing notes I do not pretend to have entered into the 
smaller and, to my thinking, not very constant differences between 
the two species as pointed out by various authors. Anyone who has 
had much experience in skinning birds will know how readily the 
relative extent of markings may be altered by careless making up. 
Such differences, to be of any value, must be noted on the spot from 
freshly-killed birds. 
It is yet too early to say whether the White Wagtails will breed 
here, but if such be the case, I hope to send some further notes on 
the subject. | : 
Bn Wemoriam. 
JOHN HARRISON. 
By the lamented death of Mr. John Harrison, Yorkshire natural 
history has suffered a severe loss, and many of her naturalists an 
old, much esteemed, and greatly respected friend. 
Mr. Harrison was born at Nunnington Hall, near Malton, on 
the 1st of June, 1823, and spent his boyhood there, afterwards 
residing at Murton, near Hawnby, until 1852, when he removed 
to Wilstrop Hall, near York, where he passed away on the 3oth of 
April last, falling a victim to bronchitis, following an attack of the 
prevalent influenza. 
From his youth until his death he was a true lover of nature, and 
a close and careful observer of her children and their ways. His 
profession—a gentleman farmer—afforded him unlimited oppor- 
tunities of pursuing his favourite study, and the result was that he 
possessed a surprising amount of knowledge in many departments of 
natural history. This knowledge, though seldom contributed by 
him to scientific literature, owing to Mr. Harrison’s modest nature, 
was always freely at the disposal of those who sought it. The 
authors of the ‘ Vertebrate Fauna of Yorkshire’ well remember how 
generously he afforded them much valued aid during the progress 
of their work. 
Mr. Harrison’s special study was ornithology. In this branch of 
science he was not only familiar with the British aspect of the 
Subject, but his special trips to Scandinavia, Holland, the Lower 
Danube, and North America, undertaken for the purpose of making 
June : 
