8 7 
THE GREAT CRESTED GREBE ENQUIRY AND 
CENSUS OF 1931, IN YORKSHIRE, AND A FEW 
LATER NOTES. 
By H. B. Booth, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. 
This census was undertaken by two Cambridge undergraduates, Messrs. 
T. H. Harrisson, M.B.O.U., and P. A. D. Hollom, M.B.O.U., in con- 
junction with ‘ British Birds ’ (mag.). The whole of England and 
Wales were divided out, usually into counties, and each was put in 
charge of a competent field ornithologist, who worked together with his 
friends and correspondents, but who made himself Responsible for the 
full returns for his area. Everyone known to have assisted in any way 
was acknowledged in ‘ British Birds.’ In this way, and with the 
assistance of my friends, I made myself responsible for the three Ridings 
of Yorkshire, knowing that practically almost the whole of the work 
would have to be done in the West Riding. This agreement was made 
on the understanding that when the general work was tabulated and 
published, I should read a more detailed account of our Yorkshire portion 
before the Vertebrate Zoology Section of the Y.N.U., with a view to 
publication in The Naturalist later. The mass of notes and reports 
collected and sent in were so enormous that it was well after the breeding 
season of 1932 before they could be tabulated and published. Parts 
were circulated in ‘ British Birds,’ Vol. XXVI, 1932 (for August, pp. 
62 to 91 ; September, pp. 102 to 131 ; October, pp. 142 to 155 ; and 
for November, pp. 174 to 195 )T 
In the first place, 1931 was a very wet spring and summer, which 
was very much more to the discomfort of the recorders than to the grebes . 
In many places it was difficult to approach their nesting environments, 
and on many of the reservoirs, such as those of the Leeds Waterworks 
in the Washburn Valley, where these birds usually have their nests 
stranded by the fall of the water, they had merely to add an inch or two 
more vegetable matter to their nests and probably never fared better. 
In my reports and returns I had dealt with each Riding separately, 
and which I intend to do in the present paper ; but the compilers lumped 
the returns for the three Ridings together without any distinction, 
chiefly for the comparative county table, in which Yorkshire stood very 
high, having 66 pairs. Only one county got into a higher plane, viz. : 
Norfolk with its many Broads, and its estimated number of about 
202 pairs ! 
The East Riding. 
Hornsea Mere . — This fine natural stretch of water and cover has 
probably been the home of the Great Crested Grebe from time 
immemorial and appears to be the only site in this Riding. 
In 1844 Thos. Allis in his ‘ List of Yorkshire Birds ’ for the British 
Association, wrote of this species, ‘ A. Strickland states that it breeds at 
Hornsea Mere, and probably used to be abundant in the Carrs.’ 2 Clarke 
and Roebuck in their ‘ Handbook of Yorkshire Vertebrata,’ published 
in 1881, on page 88 say, ‘ about half a dozen pairs breeding regularly at 
1 For those who wish to study the subject more concisely, or to keep 
it for reference, Messrs. H. F. and G. Witherby have made a reprint, 
which is very handy. It covers the whole subject investigated, and 
includes the comparative county map. It has paper covers, 97 pages, 
for 2/6 and is well worth the money to any field ornithologist ; from 
326 High Holborn, London, W.C.i. 
2 Birds of Yorkshire, p. 738. 
1 933 April 1 
