FIELD MEETINGS FOR I909 



187 



Birds. 



Starlings (in immense flocks) 



Lapwings (not frequent) 



Curlews (fairly common) 



Greenfinches 



Sandpipers (common — seen 



several times) 

 Missel Thrush 

 Stonechats 

 Wheatears (seen two or three 



times) 

 Titlarks 



Skylarks 



Black-headed Gulls (common) 



Lesser Black-backed Gulls (a 

 few times seen) 



Blackbirds (seldom seen) 



Redstarts (seen near Wood- 

 burn) 



Dippers 



Chaffinch 



Grouse 



Partridges 



New ground was broken for the fourth meeting on Wednes- 

 day, July 2 1st, the locality chosen being the lower reaches of 

 the River Skerne above Darlington. 



Viewed from the railway, alongside which for part of its 

 course the stream flows sluggishly through flat, bare land, the 

 prospect of a good day's work did not appear great : these 

 fears proved to be ill-founded. 



Often have I stood at the confluence of the Skerne with the 

 Tees near Croft, after heavy rains, and wondered how this 

 small stream rose five or six feet while the turbulent Tees, 

 coming from the fastness of the Cumberland hills, swollen 

 by many becks, rarely exceeded a rise of 10 to 12 feet. The 

 reason was to be found to-day by the closer study of the long 

 winding course and numerous feeders. Rising near Wingate, 

 the Skerne twists ere it discharges itself into the Tees, and 

 runs a course of about 35 miles, which may be aptly described 

 by the well-known lines — 



With many a curve my bank I fret, 



By many a field and fallow, 

 And many a fairy foreland set 

 With willow-weed and mallow. 



Prof. J. A. Dixon, M.A., B.Sc, and Mr. Stanley Smith, 

 M.Sc, who kindly sketched the programme and acted as 

 guides, met us at Darlington Station. A tramcar bore us 



