VERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY IN YORKSHIRE. 
i33 
Two meetings of the Vertebrate section of the Yorkshire Naturalists" 
Union were held at the Leeds Institute on February 21st. Mr. H. B. 
Booth, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U., the President of the Section, was in the Chair, 
and the meetings were both well attended. The Chairman referred to 
the death in South Georgia of Major Barrett-Hamilton, where he had 
been sent by the Government to study and report upon the whale in- 
dustry. Such an event was at any time to be deplored, but the loss was 
particularly serious owing to the unfinished state of his monumental 
work on “ British Mammals ” It was a sad coincidence that both he 
and Dr. Wilson who was illustrating the work, should be lost in the 
Antarctic. 
Mr. Riley Fortune, F.Z.S., reported on the steps taken by the Pro- 
tection Acts Committee for 1914 in appointing watchers, etc. Dr. 
E. S. Steward, M.B.O.U., gave a remarkably interesting account of an 
ornithological holiday spent chiefly among the larger Raptorial Birds in 
the Spanish Sierras. Especially noteworthy were the large numbers 
of vultures, eagles and kites to be seen in quite a small area, and the 
arboreal nesting habits of species usually credited as cliff and mountain 
breeders. Many further interesting details were given of lowland species 
met with, i.e., Stone-curlew, Woodlark, Great Spotted Cuckoo, and its 
host, the Magpie, etc. 
Mr. Johnson Wilkinson attended the meeting to bring before the 
members’ notice the ‘ Plumage Bill,’ shortly to be introduced in the House 
of Commons. Lines of action in furtherance of the measure were 
suggested, and it was decided that the Union’s Secretary should solicit 
the support of all the Yorkshire M.P.’s and that each individual member 
of the Section should do the same with his Parliamentary representative. 
It may be remembered that it was through the efforts of Yorkshire 
Naturalists and a Yorkshire M.P., Mr. Christopher Sykes, that the ' Sea- 
birds’ Preservation Act, 1S69,’ put a stop to the slaughter, in breeding 
time, of British Sea-birds for the decoration of millinery. 
Mr. W. H. Parkin raised the question of a report of Professor Garstang’s 
lectures on Yorkshire Birds, as to whether the Whooper Swan had bred 
in Harewood Park. Air. Fortune pointed out that on two occasions the 
pinioned birds had bred there. Mr. E. W. Wade commented on the un- 
usually severe weather experienced on the Continent and the resultant 
immigration of Waxwings, also on the abnormal eruptions of Woodcock 
on the East Coast. 
Mr. G. H. Parkin exhibited a collection of seeds taken from the crops 
of Pallas’ Sand-Grouse imported in the frozen state into this countrv. 
The weight of the bird averages gh ozs., and the crop (which was full) 
contained one ounce of various seeds. He had been able to separate 
sixteen varieties and many of these he had been successful in growing 
for herbarium specimens. These were handed round. 
He also showed a beautifully set up Waxwing from Bourne, Lincoln- 
shire, which had its crop full of rose hips. 
Mr. W. J. Clarke, F.Z.S., exhibited a skin of a starling shot near 
Scarborough on the 1st January, 1914, and was found to have been 
ringed at Lisden, near Walmar, Livland, in June, 1912. 
He also brought forward a ‘ Pearl-side ’ ( Scopelus pennanti ) measuring 
if inches in length, preserved in spirit, taken in Scarborough South 
Bay, February 19th, 1914. The Scopeli are nocturnal in habits and are 
generally diffused throughout the Ocean both in Northern and Southern 
Hemispheres. Many species are found in the Mediterranean and in the 
Chinese, Indian, and Australian Seas. 
5 . Pennanti has occurred several times at Redcar, at Portobello, in 
the Orkneys, at Downing in Flintshire and at Exmouth. 
191-1 April 1. 
