Field Notes. 
1 88 
antique millstone had been made from the local grit and well- 
used for grinding corn, several centuries before the Millstone 
Grit received its name. It was interesting to find therefore that 
in the earliest times the rock which has since become so famous 
for making mill stones, was used for that very purpose in the 
place now known as Knaresborough. 
And that quern is not at Knaresborough now. 
: o : 
Early Arrival of Swifts at Harrogate. — The first 
Swift arrived at Ripley on April 28th, a most abnormally 
•early date. I have never before known Swifts to arrive in 
this district in April. On May 2nd we had our usual numbers, 
four days before their regular time. On May 2nd, between 
Ben Rhydding and Otley, I saw an enormous concourse, 
consisting of hundreds of Swifts, Swallows and Martins hawking 
along the banks of the Wharfe. Passing the same way on 
May 3rd, the Swallows and Martins had all gone, but several 
hundred Swifts were still there, flying very low down over the 
river and the road. I seemed to pass through a cloud ot 
Swifts as I drove along the road. — R. Fortune. 
Great>Spotted Woodpecker ejecting a Blue=Tit. — A 
Blue-Tit built her nest in a hole in a tree at Ripley and had laid 
nine eggs, when a woodpecker came along, enlarged the . hole, 
descended on to the tit’s nest, broke all the eggs and turned 
up the nesting material, and, after this work of destruction 
she did not use the hole for her own nesting purposes. — 
R. Fortune. 
York Bird Notes. — The following early nests have been 
found in the district Snipe with 4 eggs, April 2nd ; Green 
Plover, one with 4 eggs and one with 3 eggs on March 25th ; 
Pheasant’s nest with five eggs on April 16th. 
Arrival of 
Chiff Chaff, April 1st. 
Tree Pipit, April 3rd. 
Swallow, April 6th. 
Willow Warbler, April 13th. 
Wood Warbler, April 13th. 
Wheatear, April 13th. 
Sedge Warbler, April 29th. 
Whinchat, April 30th. 
Landrail, May 4th. 
Swift, May 4th. 
Redstart, May 4th. 
Common Whitethroat, May 4th. 
Sandpiper, April 12th. 
Migrants. 
Cuckoo, April 16th. 
Turtle Dove, April 20th. 
Yellow Wagtail, April 21st. 
Lesser Whitethroat, April 21st. 
House Martin, April 21st. 
Garden Warbler, April 27th. 
Blackcap Warbler, April 27th. 
Spotted Flycatcher, May 5th. 
Nightjar, May 6th. 
Nightjar, one found dead, May 
16th. 
Pied Flycatcher, May 16th. 
On April 26th, I saw a party of six Fieldfares chasing' each 
other and calling from the top of an ash tree at Wheldrakc, 
10 miles S.E. of York. — Sydney H. Smith. 
Naturalist, 
