YORKSHIRE— PHYSICAL ASPECT. xxvii 



But the famous headland and the great chalk cliffs with their 

 ornithological wealth are not the only attractions which Flam- 

 borough possesses, for the base of the cliffs abounds with rock- 

 pools, which, though as yet almost uninvestigated, will doubtless 

 yield a varied and interesting fish-fauna. 



The chalk terminates below Sewerby Hall, and is succeeded 

 by the low diluvial cliffs and sandy beach of Bridlington Bay, 

 stretching for forty-two miles in a bold concave sweep, which 

 terminates in the marram-covered sandhills of Spurn. This line 

 of coast, the eastern border of Holderness, composed of soft 

 strata which are being steadily wasted away by the action of the 

 sea, is comparatively uninteresting, and its vertebrate zoology 

 offers but little that is worthy of special note until Spurn is 

 reached. Spurn Point, the southern termination of the Yorkshire 

 coast, is connected with the mainland of Holderness by a narrow 

 neck of sandhills overgrown with marram-grass, a few yards in 

 width, and preserved intact only by constant supervision, and at 

 considerable expense. Were these intermitted the sea would 

 speedily break through the isthmus and join the Humber, as it 

 has done before now. Spurn is ornithologically rich. Birds 

 migrating along the coast, or arriving from the east, find many 

 temptations to linger. The miles of mudflats left bare on the 

 Humber side of the isthmus by every receding tide offer great 

 attractions and a never failing supply of food to various shore 

 birds, and in the spring and autumn are frequented by great num- 

 bers of birds of this class. Many of these winter here — such as the 

 bartailed godwit,grey plover, knot, turnstone, sanderHng,and others. 

 It is fortunate that Spurn is very strictly preserved, and equally 

 so that this part of the coast is unsuitable for ' punting.' In 

 winter thousands of duck and many brent geese are to be noted 

 on the Humber ; while woodcocks are sometimes observed in 

 very great numbers on their arrival in the latter days of October. 



The Geographical Position of Yorkshire, viewed 

 from a faunistic standpoint, must be regarded as singularly favour- 

 able, as it presents a combination of advantages seldom equalled, 

 both as regards the actual geographical range of the breeding 

 species and the arrival of migrants and stragglers. 



