UPPER NIDDERDALE AND ITS FAUNA. 



197 



Red Field Vole. Arvicola glareolus. Common. Usually looked 



upon not as a mouse, but a small rat. 

 Hare. Lepus europseus. Common ; occurs on the moors right up 



to Great and Little Whernside. 

 Rabbit. Lepus cuniculus. Abundant. Silver-grey rabbits have 



been turned down by Messrs. Yorke and Harker. 



BIRDS. 



The avifauna of Upper Nidderdale is singularly rich in residents 

 and summer visitants, no less than 90 species breeding annually 

 within its limits — a census which it would be perhaps difficult to 

 surpass in any similar area in the county. This special feature of 

 true ornithic wealth is no doubt due to the great diversity of habitat 

 afforded. The river Nidd furnishes and traverses a variety of haunts, 

 from alpine moorlands, shaley bluffs, many of them clothed with 

 hanging vegetation, and is margined with a luxurious growth of 

 timber, brake, and pasture, while its many feeders flow down deep, 

 rocky, picturesque, and secluded dells. The woodlands and coppices 

 are numerous, and but seldom trodden. The grasslands are exten- 

 sive and varied. The moorlands encircle the entire district, while 

 at Guyscliffe and Brimham are to be found bold cliffs. We must 

 remember, too, since it is an important item, the secluded nature of 

 the entire district, which has already been mentioned. But while the 

 region thus affords such an extensive range of physical feature, yet it 

 lacks the lake and the tarn, and thus it is not visited by some of the 

 numerous species of migratory waders during the spring and autumn 

 movements, nor by the many members of the Duck family, which in 

 winter are so numerous on such waters. 



The total avifauna of Upper Nidderdale, so far as it is known at 

 present, comprises 123 species. Of these 62 are Residents, 28 are 

 Summer Visitants, 1 1 Winter Visitants, and 23 are Casual or Periodic 

 Visitants and more or less rare. It is amongst this latter division that 

 the future additions to the list will, we venture to say, be made. 



Among the Resident species the most interesting are — Goldfinch, 

 a very local Yorkshire bird ; the Hawfinch, which has only recently 

 extended its range hither ; the Crossbill, also only recently detected ; 

 the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, another uncommon county species ; 

 the Heron, which nests singly in the woods ; the Teal, nesting on the 

 moorlands ; the Woodcock, whose eggs and chicks have more than 

 once been found; while the Dipper, the Grey Wagtail, and the Grouse 

 are characteristic of the subalpine nature of the district. 



July 1886. 



