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NATURAL HISTORY NOTES FROM YORKSHIRE 



FOR 1899. 



By Oxley Grabham, M.A., M.B.O.U. 



The nesting season of the year 1899 will ever be a red letter 

 one in ray calendar on account of the excellent series of photo- 

 graphs of nests and eggs, birds on their nests, birds feeding their 

 young, &c, many of which are unique, that we — my friends Mr. T. 

 A. Metcalfe and Captain H. Moore — were able to obtain. It was 

 a bright sunny season, admirable as far as the light was con- 

 cerned, and warm enough to be perfectly pleasant when we were 

 lying up in water, or hiding for hours in the heather or gorse, for 

 a shy bird to come back on to her nest. During the month of 

 January many Duck were on inland flood water, but they were 

 very bad to approach in a punt. Slavonian Grebes were about 

 in some numbers. I had several Pipistrelle Bats and a sandy- 

 coloured Mole brought to me. February was fine. Rooks and 

 Herons were busy building by the 18th; a piebald Mole was 

 caught near Knaresborough, but most unfortunately was thrown 

 away before I heard about it. I have been trying to secure a 

 piebald and a spotted example for years. Many Little Grebes 

 about. The latter end of March was very cold and stormy. The 

 pair of Rooks from Mr. Kitching's rookery at Heworth, that 

 have built in a kind of cage just below the weathercock on the 

 top of Heworth Church spire, 120 ft. from the ground, every 

 year since 1887, have at last completed their nest after many 

 failures. I saw a magnificent old male Heron that had unfortu- 

 nately been trapped on a well-known Trout stream; he had been 

 so often in the traps and escaped that he had not a whole toe 

 left. His long crest-plumes measured nine inches. 



Very early in April Long-eared Owls and Tawny Owls were 

 sitting. On the 7th Metcalfe and I tried hard to get a photo- 

 graph of the latter as she flew off her four eggs, which were in a 

 hollow tree on a " scarr " side at the edge of a moor. There 



