NOTES AND QUERIES. Ill 



Peak District, the general physical features of which are very similar 

 to North-west Yorkshire, and such conditions are not suitable habitats 

 of the Lesser Whitethroat, at least in its Yorkshire range. In this 

 district (Wilsden) I have only three occurrences for over forty years; 

 twice it has bred, and, curious to say of both instances, almost in the 

 identical bush in the Aire Valley, near Bingley. It is said to be an 

 early breeder — much earlier than the Whitethroat — but I think this 

 is a mistaken idea. It seems to prefer feeding among the higher 

 branches of trees than the commoner species. Even to the seventies 

 very little was known regarding the distribution of this species in 

 Yorkshire, and it is to be feared that much confusion exists at the 

 present time. In the north-west of Yorkshire it is a very rare nesting 

 species. Morris says it is found near Halifax, but probably he 

 copied his statement from the source which supplied Thos. Allis with 

 his information. It is, however, hardly probable that the Lesser 

 Whitethroat will be commoner there than in this district. In some 

 districts to the east it is fairly common, or at least not rare, viz., 

 about Neatherby, Thorp Arch, and Boston Spa, whilst in the neigh- 

 bourhood of York it is said to be more abundant than Sylvia cinerea 

 (Nelson) ; further south-east, about Beverley and the Holderness 

 district, it is more sparingly distributed. It is not uncommon in the 

 Huddersfield district, but is said to be absent from the district of 

 Sheffield, although Thos. Allis reported it as common in 1844, and it 

 is also absent from the neighbourhood of Elamborough Head. It is 

 sparingly distributed in some of the valleys in the neighbourhood of 

 Whitby, and the same remarks apply to Staithes and Loftus, in 

 North Yorkshire, and it is a summer visitor to Marske and Ellerton, 

 in Swaledale. It breeds but locally in some parts of Wensleydale, 

 and was considered a rare bird about Wakefield until the year 1870, 

 but this might be on account of its having been overlooked or con- 

 fused with some other species — a common mistake up to within a 

 recent date ; the Lesser Whitethroat is not included in the list of 

 birds of Washburndale by Boebuck and Clarke, nor in the list of 

 birds of Langstrothdale by Wood. Much remains yet to be known 

 of its range in Yorkshire. This, however, is certain, that it is a rare 

 breeding species in North-west Yorkshire, and nowhere can be called 

 abundant except in the central plain. Personally I have never met 

 with this species more commonly than its near ally cinerea in any 

 part of Yorkshire. — E. P. Butteefield. 



Waxwings in Yarmouth and the Neighbourhood. — Unusual 

 numbers of Waxwings (Ampelis garrulus) have visited the east coast 



