lO 
YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS' UNION. 
Writing for East Yorkshire, Mr. E. W. Wade adds : — The 
season of 1907 is one that will long be memorable amongst 
ornithologists for its consistently unfavourable weather. 
The effects of the severe winter upon bird life were disastrous. 
Redwings died by thousands all over the country, being driven 
by hunger to eat not only the Holly berries and Hips, but Mistletoe 
berries, which, as a rule, no bird but the Mistle Thrush will touch. 
The Heron, usually the earliest of nesting birds, which sometimes 
sits on its eggs through snow and frost, had, in one colony at 
least, not commenced to lay on 24th March. 
In spite of the inclement season, we have to record unusual 
appearances of some birds, which we should hardly have expected 
to see so far north this year, viz., a Nightingale sang regularly at 
Sutton, another at Waghen, and a third at Elloughton this spring, 
and must have been breeding birds. On 20th May Mr. B. Haworth 
Booth reported a male Red-breasted Flycatcher at Hull Bank 
House ; and on 4th June Mr. H. R. Jackson reported that he 
saw male and female of the same birds at Thearne, about a mile 
distant. 
We have one or two interesting observations to record from 
this district, viz : — 
The noticeable scarcity of the Grey Crow in autumn and 
winter, as compared with previous seasons. 
The gradual disappearance of the Corncrake from the 
East Riding is coincident with the same fact observed in the West 
Riding. 
On 9th May a Starling's nest with eight eggs, all of one 
type, was found in Burton Constable woods in a decayed tree- 
stump far from any other breeding place of the species. This is 
the third year in succession that the same number has been laid. 
In early May a large flock of Dotterel was seen on the low 
lands between Easington and the H umber, and several were shot. 
At Hornsea Mere, the keeper, J. Taylor, reports that the 
Herons have decreased, but the Pochards show a slight increase 
over recent years. Only one pair of Shovellers bred here, against 
seven pairs in 1906, probably owing to the greater amount of 
water having flooded out the nesting locality. A pair of Tufted 
Ducks has again been on the Mere all this season. Only three 
pairs of Great-crested Grebe remain, and of these only one pair 
reared young, two in number. The increase of boating" is un- 
doubtedly respoiisible for driving away these birds. 
At Bempton, the year 1907 has been the most disastrously 
wet season at the cliffs within living memory; an unfortunate 
factor for climbers, but fortunate for the birds. In consequence of 
the interruption in gathering eggs at the right time, many became 
