Smith : Turtle Dove in Yorkshire. 127 
Mr. Stanley Duncan informs me that, with his brother, 
Norman Duncan, he saw a pair of turtle doves come in off the 
sea and round Spurn Point at 11-30 a.m. on May 28th, 1921. 
This pair did not alight, but flew over the * flats ’ to the north 
shore of the Humber. Close observation has been kept here 
all the summer, but no more turtle doves have been seen. It 
is evident from this note that there must be some slight 
immigration from over the North Sea, and it will be advisable 
to keep a close watch at the east coast arriving points for 
immigrant bird life, to find out whether there is any definite 
flight line for this species over the North Sea from the con- 
tinent, as all the evidence we have at present seems to shew 
that the spring movement is all from the south coast toward 
the midland and northern counties. 
Mr. W. J. Bramley, of Fairburn, states that he has not ob- 
served the date of arrival of this summer visitor previously, but 
has noticed it in the neighbourhood of Fairburn as follows : — 
1921 August 9th. — Six turtle doves seen feeding on a wheat stubble. 
August 20th. — A few turtle doves seen. 
August 21st. — A nest was found with two young birds just able 
to fly. 
September 1st. — Three turtle doves, seen and the last one was 
noticed on September 10th. 
Mr. E. W. Wade informs me that the species has been 
distributed all over Holderness since 1918, never numerous, 
the country generally being too shelterless, but in certain 
favoured spots a pair was found. It has bred at Warter and 
in other sheltered valleys on the Wolds as long as the present 
keeper can remember, but in very restricted numbers. His 
first acquaintance with this species was in 1906, when he 
heard two or three pairs in the spinneys in low sheltered valleys. 
In 1907 it was noticeably spreading over Holderness, where 
ten years previously it had been entirely unknown. In 1909 
he noted .that it was still spreading. It was at Brant ingham 
in 1911, and Ferriby, 1912, and here it has remained to date. 
Around the western edge of the wolds, where the valleys are 
more sheltered, the turtle dove was settled long before it 
began to extend into the bleaker country to the east. In 
1916 there was a great increase at Warter, and in 1919 forty 
were seen during the late summer in one flock. 
In conclusion, I am led to wonder why the turtle dove has 
increased in Yorkshire, as these notes have shewn, for, after 
all, the species is only a summer visitor to our shores, and 
in the event of some sudden storm overtaking the immigrant 
flocks, and wiping out those which have our county as their 
objective, it is quite possible that the turtle dove will again 
be a rarity in Yorkshire until the cycle adjusts itself by the 
influence of local breeding of descendants of those pairs which 
may have escaped the general disaster. 
1922 Apl. 1 
