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NOTES on BIRDS. 



Nightjar, etc., near Halifax. — I heard the Nightjar {Caprimidgns 

 europceus) buzzing at Turvin on 19th July, and saw a great number of 

 Golden Plovers {Charadrius pluvialis) on the 20th and 21st. — HAROLD 

 Pickles, 137, Hyde Park Road, Halifax, 27th July 1901. 



Blue-pen : a Halifax Dialect Expression. — In the interesting para- 

 graph on Cuckoo and Meadow-Pipit by Mr. Harold Pickles, Halifax, in last 

 month's issue, there occurs the following- : ' The young Cuckoo is now, as 

 the country people say, in ' blue-pane,' i.e., its feathers are mostly in the 

 quill stage.' The dialect expression is ' blue-pen ' not blue-pane. — Charles 

 Crosslaxd, 4, Coleridge Street, Halifax, 22nd August 1901. 



Holderness Bird-Notes, May 1901.— On the occasion of the Hull 

 Scientific Club's visit to Saltend, 23rd May, a Common Sandpiper ( Toianus 

 hypolencos ) was seen in the Hedon Haven, and three Stint ( Tringa alpina ) 

 in summer plumage on Saltend Common. The Sandpiper usually visits us 

 in April, and again in August and September. I have one other May record, 

 Hornsea Mere, 3rd May 1895. My latest dates for the Stint are 26th May 

 1899, Saltend, and 21st June 1899, Hornsea Mere (2). 



Swallows ( Hirundo riistica ) and House Martins ( Chelidon urbica ) were 

 very numerous on the Humber bank, 23rd May. Correspondents who have 

 noted a.- scarcity of these birds inland may possibly find a reason here, as 

 this locality is a temporary resting place where they are found in numbers, 

 in normal years, only at the end of April. — T. Petch, Hedon, 14th June 1900. 



Audacity of Lincolnshire Rooks. — During the last decade of dry 

 springs and summers, Rooks { Corvus fnigilegns L.) have grown unusually 

 destructive. The following story, which happened 25th May 1901, in the 

 Redland Carr, by the river Ancholme at Cadney, is about the coolest piece 

 of work I have met with. Tom Hockney, the foreman at the Manor House, 

 went out early in the morning along' with the wagoner to horsehoe wheat. 

 He had been very hurried and had very little breakfast before starting, and 

 so took an unusually large luncheon. This was carefully wrapped up in 

 white paper, and placed in the outer pocket of his greatcoat, from which 

 a little of the white paper was visible. The coat was left lying on a bank 

 in the shade, along with the wagoner's, folded with the luncheon pocket in 

 the inside. While he was hoeing the foreman noticed an unusual gathering 

 of Rooks in the neighbourhood of the coats, but did not give a second 

 thought to the matter. At luncheon time he discovered his pocket had 

 been ravaged by the boldfaced visitors. They had torn the paper into 

 shreds in drawing it out of the coat pocket and devouring the food. As 

 the luncheon was wholly covered with paper, the birds must have found the 

 food out by smells. ' What's the good of a ' mawkin ' [i.e. scarecrow] after 

 that?' his master asked me. I have observed a Rook perched on the hat 

 of a mawkin in order to get a better view of his feeding-ground. 



During a snowy period some winters back at Cadney the Rooks drilled 

 huge holes through the thatch of two wheat stacks, and feasted on the corn 

 in sheaf. They varied their food with the flesh of dead Redwings, etc., 

 which had been carried off by the cold. Two days after the stacks of 

 wheat were thrashed I was much amused at seeing some twenty birds 

 taking turns at the labour of drilling the thatch of a seed, i.e., clover and 

 ryegrass, stack. After carrying on their unprofitable labour for three days 

 the spot suddenly knew them no more. Had they made the discovery that 

 stacks are not always built of wheat sheaves? The Rooks, both old and 

 young, are starving this dry, hot weather. As I approached a farm the 

 other day a hen cackled as she came off the nest. A Rook flew into the 

 yard at once and carried out the egg on its bill and devoured it on the road 

 about a hundred yards in front of me. Game birds' eggs are suffering 

 terribly too. — E. Adrian Woodruffe-Peacock, Cadney, Brigg, 17th June 

 1901. 



Naturalist, 



