@rigma( Jlrtttlcs. 



YORKSHIRE ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FOR 1880. 



By Wm, Eagle Clarke, 

 member of the british ornithologists' uniok". 



The chief incident of the month of January was an unlooked-for 

 immigration of fieldfares and short-eared owls. Fieldfares, which had 

 been almost entirely absent during the autumn of 1879, appeared on 

 the 24th, in considerable numbers, at Spurn. The owls immediately 

 followed, and were somewhat numerous on the Holderness coast during 

 the latter days of the month. A large party of swans, most probably 

 hoopers, were observed passing Withernsea, on one of the first days of 

 the year. During the severe weather of January and February, brent, 

 or as they are locally termed " rock " geese, were extremely abundant 

 on the Humber estuary, coming up to the shore and retiring with every 

 tide. 



In my notes for 1879 I alluded to the occurrence of a flock of shore 

 larks, at Easington, on the 22nd of December. Fortunately I had 

 many opportunities of observing these interesting birds, which were 

 not again seen until the 9th of February, but from that date until the 

 20th of March, they were observed almost daily. At first they 

 frequented a bare flat of sand and pebbles, some distanee above high- 

 water mark, on the sea-side, but very soon transferred their affections 

 to a long and narrow bed of debris, composed chiefly of the withered 

 blades of the marine plant, Zodera maritima, which had been heaped 

 np by the tide into a series of little hillocks and depressions on the 

 Humber foreshore. To this they were most constant, spending their 

 time in searching for food over its undulating surface, or basking in 

 the warm mid-day sunshine, in a crouching position, on one of its 

 hillocks. At ail times they evinced but little fear, and I watched them 

 for an hour at a time, with the binocular, from a distance of about 

 twenty yards. On the 13th of March, I counted twenty together, 

 which was the largest number seen in one party. On this day the sun 

 was very brilliant, and the old males of the assemblage were very 

 conspicuous, the black of their breasts and crowns, the fine brimstone 

 yellow of their cheeks, the lateral tufts of their heads, and the warm 

 vinons tint on their napes and shoulders, contrasting advantageously 

 with the identical, but more suppressed, colours of the immature birds 

 and the females of the group. The mature males, on a closer 

 examination of specimens obtained, appeared to have more massive 

 heads, and to be generally more stoutly built than the others. The 



flight is jerky, and whilst on the wing they uttered a note soaxiewh^^t 

 JSr. S., Vol. vii.— June, 1882. 



