YORKSHIRE— VERTEBRATE FAUNA. xxxv 



of habitat necessary for the presence of ahnost every type of bird 

 which breeds in the British Isles. 



The EIGHTY-EIGHT RESIDENT BiRDS include the following 

 species which deserve special mention. 



The Nuthatch, Hawfinch, Wood-Lark, Lesser Spotted Wood- 

 pecker, Pochard, and Great Crested Grebe find in the county the 

 northern limit of their distribution in Britain during the breeding 

 season ; though one or two of them have been known to nest 

 occasionally or singly in districts still further north. The Curlew 

 and Dunlin on the other hand find in it in like manner the limit 

 of their southern range. 



The Raven, Buzzard, and Peregrine Falcon, all formerly 

 resident in some abundance, are now restricted to a few pairs of 

 each species still breeding annually, the Buzzard, once so com- 

 mon among the crags of the Yorkshire fells, being now the rarest 

 of the three. The elegant little Goldfinch, too, is fast diminishing, 

 and although widely distributed in the county is extremely local 

 and nowhere numerous. The Sheldrake is one of the most local 

 birds which nest in Yorkshire, only two breeding-haunts being 

 known. 



Yorkshire Heronries have greatly decreased during the present 

 century. Formerly they existed in the following places, the date at 

 which they ceased to do so where known being given in parenthesis : 

 — Scorborough (1862 or 1864); Watton Abbey; Stork Hill, near 

 Beverley; Hotham (18 19); Swanland, near Hull ; Sutton Wood, 

 Sutton-on-Derwent, where in i860 there were said to be a hundred 

 nests; Hemsworth ; Walton Park (1865); Scarthingwell; Bolton 

 Woods; and Flasby, near Gargrave (1866). Those now in 

 existence are enumerated at page 49. 



The nesting of the Rock-Dove on inland cliffs, although given 

 on good authority, is, it must be confessed, not perfectly satisfac- 

 tory, as the bird so reported may possibly prove to be the Stock- 

 Dove, a species which breeds not uncommonly in such situations. 



Of THE THIRTY-TWO SuMMER VisiTANTS the Nightingale, 

 Reed-Warbler, Wryneck, Turtle-Dove, and Stone-Curlew reach 

 in Yorkshire the northern limit of their annual distribution during 

 the nesting-season. The Wryneck and Turtle-Dove have, however, 



