353 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



THE BIRDS OF FLAMBOROUGH HEAD. 



All naturalists will be delighted to learn that at a recent 

 meeting of the East Riding County Council it was decided to 

 make application to the Home Secretary, under the Wild Birds' 

 Protection Acts, 1880-1896, for an order 'prohibiting during the 

 whole year the shooting or killing, or attempting to shoot or 

 kill sea birds on or from the piers of Bridlington, or within the 

 harbour of Bridlington, or on or from the sands or sea-shore, or 

 ajiy part of the sea wxth'm an imaginary line drawn from the South 

 Landing in the parish of Flamborough, to the outlet of Barmston 

 Drain, which is situated about six miles to the south of Brid- 

 lington. Such an order has been required for a long time, and 

 it is sincerely to be hoped that it will be put into force and acted 

 tipon. In many cases, as we have frequently pointed out, the 

 so-called ' protection ' of birds has proved to be a farce — rare 

 birds being regularly shot, and particulars thereof, with the 

 name of the 'sportsman,' etc., appearing in the press and in 

 the natural history magazines as a matter of course. Comment- 

 ing on the recent recommendation of the East Riding County 

 Council, one of the local newspapers states that it will ' bring 

 dismay to the large number of sea-bird shooters who at this 

 time of the year frequent the shores of Bridlington at all times 

 of the day.' Let us hope it may. Judging from past experience, 

 however, we are almost inclined to think that the matter will 

 make but little difference — the principal result probably being 

 a certain expenditure in printing and posting bills with the new 

 order thereon. We hope we are wrong. 



THE REV. HENRY JOHN TORRE. 

 On February 2nd last there passed away at Norton Curlieu, 

 near Warwick, the Rev. Henry John Torre, M.A., clergyman, 

 gentleman, all-round sportsman, and naturalist. He was the 

 eldest son of the Rev. Henry Torre, rector of Thornhill, near 

 Dewsbur}^, Yorkshire, and was born at Doncaster, 25th 

 February 1819, and, as he tells us in his interesting ' Recollec- 

 tions of School Days at Harrow more than Fifty Years ago,' 

 published in 1890, he entered that school after Easter in the 

 year 1831, and remained there until 1838. He subsequently 

 proceeded to Oxford, and he played in the University Eleven 

 against Cambridge in 1840, and he rowed in the University 

 College boat in 1840 and 1841, in which years it was head of 

 the river. He took his B.A. degree in 1840. He was ordained 



1904 December i. Y 



