22 YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS* UNION. 
Your committee would like to employ a paid watcher at Spurn 
Point for a few months during the breeding season. They appeal 
to all members and associates of the Y.N.U., and to all bird lovers 
in the county for small subscriptions in order to enable them to 
carry out this necessary work and also that they may have a small 
sum in reserve for emergency cases. 
We have heard with deep regret of the continual persecution 
of the Airedale Black-headed Gulls, at their nesting place on the 
moors surrounding the Fly Flatts Reservoir, belonging to the 
Halifax Corporation. This persecution is the result of unfounded 
and mistaken charges made by the local gamekeepers that the 
gulls destroyed the eggs and young of the Red Grouse. The 
charge is ridiculous. Every nest has been destroyed this season, 
and many of the birds shot. 
It is to be hoped that the West Riding County Council will 
protect these birds without delay, as they are not only a pleasant 
feature of the landscape, but are extremely valuable as scavengers 
on the sewage beds and along the river ; they also render valuable 
assistance to the farmers on the land. 
Your Committee would further draw the attention of the 
County Councils and the police authorities to the fact that Plovers' 
eggs are offered for sale by some game dealers in our cities several 
weeks after the time has expired for taking them, and at a much 
longer time than they could be sold as fresh eggs if they had been 
legally taken. We would suggest that the County Councils in 
their Wild Birds' Protection Orders state that " No Plovers' eggs 
shall be taken nor exposed for sale" say after the 15th day of 
April. 
Since the above was written, Mr. Fortune has attended a 
meeting of the West Riding County Council, at their request. 
The matter of a more comprehensive Bird Protection Order 
was thoroughly gone into, the result being that one will be 
applied for at once, a much more stringent one than that 
originally selected by the Union, but of that we must not com- 
plain. Mr. Fortune was very gratified to find the feeling for 
increased protection so strong among the members of the County 
Council. 
The following were elected for 1907 : — 
Chairman— W. H. St. Quintin, J. P., Rillington, York. 
Conveners — R. Fortune, Harrogate, and T. H. Nelson, 
Redcar. 
Representative on Executive — H. B. Booth, Shipley. 
Representative on Committee of Suggestions — W. Wilson, 
Skipton-in-Craven. 
