YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS AT THE HOLE OF HORCUM. 205 
minutes having been accepted as read, the roll-call showed that the 
50 or 60 members present were representatives of 12 Societies 
at Liversedge, Leeds (4), Scarborough (2), Goole, York, Sheffield, 
Malton and Harrogate. The Milnsbridge Naturalists’ Society was 
then elected into the Union, and the following new members were 
also elected :—Mr. Councillor F. Crosland (Huddersfield), Mr. F. 
M. Tindall (Sheffield), Mr. H. M. Platnauer, B.Sc., F.G.S. (York), 
Mr. R. W. Crosland (Cleckheaton), Mr. C. T. Thornton Comber 
(Pickering), Mr. Wm. Goodall Sins maa aa J. M. Mitchelson 
(Pickering), and Mr. Uriah Bairstow (Hali ifa 
Thanks were then voted to the various ae and shooting- 
lessers who had kindly given leave for the members to visit their 
estates, to the leaders of parties, and to Mr. Thos. Mitchelson and 
Mr. J. W. Wheldon for showing, the one his museum and the other 
his fish-hatching apparatus. 
A vote of condolence to the widow of Mr. J. M. Kirk, of 
Doncaster, so long and well known to the members, was then 
adopted on the motion of Mr. M. B. Slater, F.L.S., seconded by the 
Hon, Secretary. On the proposition of the same members it was 
resolved to ask Mr. M. H. Stiles to accept the honorary secretaryship 
of the Union’s Committee on Micro-Zoology and Micro-Botany, 
rendered vacant by Mr. Kirk’s lamented decease. Mr. Abraham 
Lambert was at the same time appointed as Hon. Local Treasurer 
for Leeds. ‘The Sections were then called upon to report through 
their respective spokesmen, as follows :— 
or the Vertebrate Section, in the absence of all its officers, 
Mr. John Braim reported on the observations which had been made 
by himself, Major Mitchelson, Messrs. W. Fletcher, John Farrah, and 
W. Denison Roebuck, F.L.S. The share of the last mentioned was 
confined to trapping in Pickering Castle grounds, the sole result of 
which was an example of the Common Shrew. ‘The only other 
mammals noted were the Water Vole, at Levisham, and the foot- 
prints of Otters, in the river below Pickering. The ornithological 
observations were made in Newtondale, above Levisham. A few 
members who were early on the ground, about 8 a.m., followed the 
beck upwards to Raindale and Wheathead, where they were joined 
by others coming by the forenoon train. The weather was very fine, 
warm and quiet, suitable for observing and noting the birds. ‘The 
members were soon pained to find that the severe winter we have 
experienced had nearly killed off the resident birds. The Thrushes 
appear to have suffered most, the Missel and Song Thrush, usually 
so abundant, being only represented by a single specimen of each 
kind, and other families, such as the Tits, were also fearfully 
July 1895. 
