I 12 



Notes— Ornithology. 



4th December. — Starling-s, Blackbirds, Lapwings, Golden 

 Plover, Gulls, Dunlin, and Snipe flying- round the Spurn Light. 



6th December. — Great numbers of birds round the Spurn 

 Light. Lapwings, Golden Plover, Knot, Gulls, Curlew, Dunlin, 

 Crows, and Oystercatchers. The following were killed by 

 striking the lantern : — Seventeen Golden Plover, two Lapwings, 

 one Dunlin, one Jack Snipe. Wind S.S.E. Large numbers of 

 Lapwings, Golden Plover, and Snipe were reported by Mr. 

 Laurence to be flying round the Flamborough Light. 



13th December. — Owing to the frost and snow hundreds of 

 birds of various species were on the beach and amongst the 

 dunes at the Spurn. Mallard, Wigeon, Snipe, Knot, Lapwing, 

 Golden Plover, and many small birds. 



14th December. — Large flocks of Duck and Knot flying 

 from the northward to the Lincolnshire coast. Wind .N.N.W. 

 at the Spurn. 



23rd December. — Many Knot, Whimbrel, Curlew, Oyster- 

 catchers, Larks, Starlings, Fieldfares, and Dunlin flying round 

 the Spurn Light. The following were killed : — Eight Knot, three 

 Dunlin, one Whimbrel, two Fieldfares, six Starlings, and four 

 Larks. Wind S.W. ; fog. 



24th December. — A good number of Larks flying round the 

 Spurn Light. Four killed. Wind W.S.W. ; hazy. 



NO TES— ORNITHOLOGY. 

 Smews near Beverley. — Mr. J. Coates, of Fleming-ate, Beverley, 

 informs me that he shot a fine female of the Smew {Mergits albellus) on the 

 river Hull, near Beverley, in December last. This bird is a regular winter 

 visitor to the river Hull, and we generally have records of specimens shot, 

 usually males. — J. R. Lowther, Crane Hill, Beverley, 19th March 1900. 



The Wryneck as a Durham Bird. — The Wryneck {lynx torquilla), 

 one of' the most beautiful of our spring and autumn visitants, is only a rare 

 bird in Durham. It generally arrives in April and leaves again in September 

 or October. During the last twenty years, if not more, it seems to have 

 become much rarer than it used to be. It has bred in this county. A pair, 

 according to the late John Hancock, nested in 1813, and for four or five 

 years afterwards-, in the garden of the Rev. George Cooper Abbs, of 

 Cleadon House, South Shields. I have known it to breed only once — in the 

 Browney Valley — in 1882, since which date I have not seen the bird or 

 heard of its appearance in this county. The late Thomas Grundy, my 

 collaborator in 'Notes on the Birds of the Derwent Valley,' drawn up for 

 the Vale of Derwent Naturalists' Field Club in 1890, and printed in their 

 Transactions (Vol. 1, 1891), stated that 'When a boy (about 1825 and after) 

 it [the Wryneck] was very common at Ravensworth, and I have taken eggs 

 out of old willow trees. Each nest generally contained six eg-gs. I think 

 it has now become extinct.' I should like ornithologists and observers of 

 bird life in the North of England, and kindred readers of ' The Naturalist,' 

 to give their personal knowledge of this little visitant in the different 

 counties in this part of Britain [so would the Editor].— J. W. Fawcett, 

 Satley Grange, Tow Law, 20th February 1900. 



Naturalist 



