17 



NOTES FROM YORKSHIRE. 



BY J. H. ANDERSON, ESQ. 



As you give encouragement to lovers of natural history in the 

 country to address you and make known their observations, and in 

 return ask information of you, I therefore without further introduction 

 commence my irregular epistle. 



The memorable storm of the 31st of August last made terrible havoc 

 among the feathered race in this neighbourhood ; whole covies of young 

 partridges were found starved to death in the fields, and a great many 

 larks and other small birds, and several rooks and jackdaws, also shared 

 the same fate. A neighbour found above twenty sparrows lying dead 

 under some poplar trees in his yard; so, computing from the number 

 of dead birds found in this neighbourhood, the quantity that perished 

 must have been very great throughout the country. As I was ranging 

 the fields the first week in September, I fell in with twelve or thirteen 

 fieldfares (Turdus pilaris), which I am inclined to think had been 

 bred in the neighbourhood ; the locality, I think too, favours the sup- 

 position. Their daily haunt is a plantation of ash, oak, and elm trees, 

 through which a considerable stream runs • and in the vicinity 

 there is a good deal of marsh or boggy land. I inquired of some 

 labourers who were well acquainted with the place, if they had noticed 

 them before, and they thought they were natives. However, to be more 

 certain, I intend keeping a strict look-out after them another year. 



I also fell in with a young heron (Ardea cinerea) at the same place, 

 and had it brought to me a day or two afterwards. I saw a family of 

 long- tailed tits (Par us caudatus), and was much amused by their 

 manoeuvres as thev flitted from one willow to another, twittering 

 incessantly. 



We have the gold-crested wren (Regnhis cristatus) in the larch 

 plantations round about here, and in hard weather they may be seen in 

 our gardens and paddocks in plenty. 



The kingfisher (Alcedo Ispeda) is a summer resident with us, and 

 some years back I saw a nest of six or seven, but am sorry to add 

 they all met an untimely fate from myself and schoolfellows. Being 

 ignorant of their history, we thought they were natives of the watery 

 element ; and being anxious that they should have plenty of it, we put 

 them into water so often, that none of them survived many days. I 

 have watched a kingfisher for more than an hour together., sitting on 



VOL. II. — NO. i. D 



