DISTRIBUTION OF STONECHAT IN YORKSHIRE. 67 



in a letter recently, informs me that " it is fast dying out here. 

 It was never plentiful, always local and scarce, and found in but 

 one or two localities as a breeding species." 



In South Yorkshire Mr. Dixon states that it breeds, but does 

 not say whether commonly or but occasionally, in the Rivalin 

 Valley ; and the late Mr. Lister includes it in his list of spring 

 migrants. It is certainly rare now in South-west Yorkshire. 

 Mr. S. L. Moseley recently informed me that he had never 

 known of its occurrence in the Huddersfield district but twice ; 

 and it is exceptionallj^ rare about Hebden Bridge. There is no 

 doubt but that it occasionally bieeds in the Wakefield district, 

 as mentioned by the late Mr. Talbot; and the same remark 

 applies to the Leeds district, though it would appear to breed 

 less occasionally as the north-west fells are approached. 



After reviewing all the information to hand regarding the 

 distribution of the Stonechat in Yorkshire, it cannot be said with 

 exactitude to be common in any district, and, contrary to what 

 one might expect, as it was formerly thought to be more of 

 a sub-alpine species, it is more common in the extreme east than 

 in the west, more especially the north-west fells, where it appears 

 to have almost died out as a nesting species, occurring occa- 

 sionally on migration, but chiefly in spring ; and it would be 

 interesting to ascertain whither these are bound, and by what 

 migration route they arrive. So far as my experience goes, this 

 species, other conditions being similar, prefers the coast to the 

 inland districts. Of course these notes are not given with any 

 pretensions to completeness or finality, but as a small contri- 

 bution to a subject which is much shrouded in mystery; and it 

 is to be hoped they will elicit further information from naturalists 

 in all parts of the county. It might be stated here that the 

 observations of ornithologists would possess a higher value if 

 they would state with clearness whether, in including the Stone- 

 chat in any local lists, it was to be regarded as a breeding species, 

 and with what frequency, or merely on migration. 



