i6 



Northern News, 



Naturalists' Union, on November 21st, 1908, said he knew of 

 four or iive nests, and the writer could beat that number of 

 pairs of birds. 



The important question for us is ' What chance has the bird 

 of surviving ? ' It must be constantly disturbed, now and then 

 it is shot, especially on migration, when odd birds have been 

 obtained near our coasts even in winter ; and in so small a 

 stock, the danger of inbreeding is a serious one, unless the num- 

 bers are recruited by immigrants from other districts. Its 

 rate of reproduction is also a very slow one. The eggs are 

 sometimes taken by dealers, as I have heard of their being 

 offered in Beverley in exchange during recent years, and their 

 protection in so wide an area appears hopeless. Game pre- 

 servers, however, might forbid their keepers to shoot the old 

 birds. 



On the other hand, the cultivation of the Wolds appears to^ 

 have reached its highest point. The natives take no interest 

 in the bird. Its extreme shyness, and the protective colouring 

 of bird and eggs in such an environment are encouraging. 

 That it can be driven away seems improbable, for its nature is 

 to return to the haunts where it was bred, until it becomes 

 extinct, and we may gather some hope from the history of 

 the bird on the chalk downs of Hampshire. 



Gilbert White, in his ' History of Selborne/ 1768-1788,. 

 speaks of the plentifulness of the Stone Curlew, and the ease 

 with which it could be detected. His successor, Thos. Bell, 

 who re-edited his letters in 1877, says : — ' In thirty years I 

 have never seen one, alive or dead.' But Messrs. Kelsall and 

 Munn, in ' Birds of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight,' 1905, 

 say : — ' Some recent observers, living at Selborne, have fancied 

 that the species has disappeared from the neighbourhood, 

 but we have good reason to believe that it still nests within a 

 very short distance of the historic village. For some reason or 

 other, the Stone Curlew has developed very suspicious and 

 wary habits, and though many eggs are destroyed when the 

 young wheat is rolled, they usually manage to rear a brood.' 

 If, then, this is true of the chalk downs of Hampshire, why not 

 of our own Yorkshire Chalk Wolds ? 



In an article appropriately headed ' Namesakes in Science,' in a con- 

 temporary, we notice a ' son of his father,' makes his debut as an artist- 

 naturalist. He is evidently following in his father's footsteps. Oddly 

 enough, his first published sketch is of the Lyre Bird. 



Naturalist, 



