380 Zoology. 



Petrel (Procellaria Leach// Tern., P. Bullock// Flem.), four 

 of which were this winter brought to Worcester to be stuffed. 

 One of them was shot swimming on a flooded meadow by the 

 Severn side, near the boundaries of the counties of Gloucester 

 and Worcester; another was taken near the same place; a 

 third in Herefordshire ; and the fourth (my specimen) was 

 picked up dead, near Hanbury, in this county. The four 

 were taken at or very near the same time, and were probably 

 stragglers from a flock driven over land by the high winds 

 which prevailed at that period. I am, Sir, yours, &c. — J, TV. 

 Worcester, March 15. 1832. 



Mo7'e last Words on the Woodpecker, — The Book of Nature, 

 like that of some great and copious Poet or Philosopher, 

 though repeatedly read and perused, is, at every page we 

 casually open, always presenting something new. 1 could not 

 have supposed myself ignorant of, what I was not aware of 

 till early in this month, that the " middle spotted woodpecker" 

 churrs on trees, just like his little congener the barred, but 

 not one fourth so long, loud, or rapid ; and he goes crawling 

 about the boles knocking and jobbing irregularly. It is not 

 mentioned in any of the books ; and had I known this, I should 

 certainly have mentioned it in my article, p. 147., as I do now, 

 to warn young and (like myself) ignorant wood-wanderers not 

 to mistake one for the other : and that future book-makers 

 might be apprised ; as I see they continually select from our 

 Magazine : and you will surely allow me, Master Loudon, to 

 say, that they cannot copy from a better publication. Many 

 experienced observers are of opinion that the middle species is 

 only the young of the great spotted ; and, indeed, it has many 

 habits, and much the appearance, of a young bird : tame, 

 clumsy, feeble, and familiar ; and I fancy it much less bril- 

 liant in smoothness and colour of plumage. It will perch 

 sideways for a great length of time on the topmost spike of a 

 very tall larch or spruce, and continually repeat its check, 

 check, check : or upon the summit of a lofty cedar of Lebanon, 

 a capital station from my dining-room window, of observing its 

 dress and manners with my ornithoscope. (A foolish phrase 

 invented by me for a small bird-telescope — tell him of the 

 learned query, p. 205. D. S. — like ornithotrophe, for a bird- 

 feeding trencher ; but obvious to the least schoolboy on the 

 lowest form, who has thumb'd his Lexicon only a week. What 

 would he think of exsuberator for a corkscrew ? This is an 

 age of the necessity for creating new nicknames and titles — 

 so, " a fico for the phrase " — " Reform it altogether.") 

 This bird differs totally from its little, loud-roaring relative, 

 in being spotted on the black back with white, instead of bar- 

 red : and in having high beneath, and partly over its vent and 



