Chapter XIV Concerning the Zoology of the Forest and Vale
The great expanses of wild moorland, the deep, heavily wooded valleys, and the rich and well-watered level country included in the scope of this book would lead one to expect much of the zoology of the Pickering district, and one is not disappointed. That the wild life is ample and interesting will be seen from the following notes on the rarer varieties which Mr Oxley Grabham of the York Museum has kindly put together.
On THE MOORS the Curlew, the Golden Plover, and the Merlin nest regularly together with other more common species.
In THE WOODS the Woodcock, Pied Flycatcher, and Wood Wren, together with the Green and the Great Spotted Woodpeckers, breed by no means uncommonly.
In THE MARSHY AND LOW-LYING LANDS the Snipe and the Redshank find congenial breeding quarters.
Many rarities have been obtained in the district such as the Kite, the Great Plover, the Smew, and the Golden Eagle, and numerous varieties of wildfowl during the winter months. I have seen large flocks of Crossbills and Bramblings hunting for food in the severe weather, and occasionally a small flock of Waxwings appears in the district.
There is a well-protected Heronry in the neighbourhood, and these fine handsome birds may frequently be seen in the vicinity of the Costa, a stream famous for the size and quality of its Trout and Grayling.
From a sporting point of view there are few better districts in the north of Yorkshire. Grouse are abundant on the moors, and there is some most excellent Partridge ground at hand, whilst certain of the coverts are famous for Woodcock during the winter months.
Foxes are numerous, and three packs of regular hounds, Lord Middleton’s, Sir Everard Cayley’s, and the Sinnington, hunt the country, whilst the old established trencher-fed Goathland pack accounts for a goodly number every season.
Otters and Badgers are far more plentiful than most people have any idea of; but, unfortunately, they are generally killed whenever a chance of doing so presents itself, the trap and the gun being regularly employed against them.
The usual smaller mammals are present in goodly numbers, and present no special or peculiar features, with the exception of the common Rat, which has been of late a perfect pest in some parts of the country; the hedge bottoms have been riddled with rat holes. Gates and posts and rails have been gnawed to bits, and in one instance a litter of young pigs were worried during the night. On one farm alone, during the year 1904, over two thousand rats were killed.
OF REPTILES, the common Adder or Viper, locally known as the Hag-Worm, is numerous in the moorland districts. It seldom if ever attacks human beings, but occasionally dogs and sheep get bitten with fatal results. The Slow or Blind Worm is also to be found here, as are the other usual forms of reptiles.
OXLEY GRABHAM, M.A., M.B.O.U.
The famous breed of horses known as the Cleveland Bays come from this district of Yorkshire. They are bred all over the district between Pickering, Helmsley, Scarborough, and Middlesborough, and although efforts have been made to raise them in other parts of England and abroad, it has been found that they lose the hardness of bone which is such a characteristic feature of the Cleveland bred animals. The Cleveland bay coach horse is descended from the famous Darly Arabian, and preserves in a wonderful manner the thoroughbred outline.