278 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



that, when the young flew, a pah* of the Great Spotted Wood- 

 peckers took possession of, and reared a brood in, the same tree. 



[Of the Great Black Woodpecker [Picus martins, L.), a 

 Continental species, Thomas Alhs wrote, in 1844, as follows : — 



Picus martins. — Great Black Woodpecker. — W. Yarrell reports that 

 two specimens were killed in Yorkshire, but, falling into hands not 

 aware of their ornithological interest, they were not preserved ("British 

 Birds," Vol. II., p. 128). 



Examples are said to have occurred in the followmg 

 instances (two of which were reported by Allis), but no reliance 

 is to be placed on their authenticity : — 



Yorkshire, once (Fothergill, " Ornith. Brit.," 1799, p. 3)- 



Yorkshire, one (Yarrell, 1843, II. p. 128). 



Yarm, two seen {Zool. 1845, p. 1107). 



Ripley, one killed, March 1846 [op. cit. 1846, p. 1298). 



Otley, one, on 8th September 1897, was probably one of 

 the individuals liberated by the late Lord Lilford. (See also 

 Harting's " Handbook," 2nd Ed. p. 396.)] 



KINGFISHER. 

 Alcedo ispida (Z.). 



Resident, generally but sparsely distributed. Occurs in autumn 

 as a migrant on the coast. 



Probably the first Yorkshire reference to the Kingfisher 

 is to be found in Miller's " History of Doncaster," in which 

 it is stated that 



" The Kingfisher conveys the small fish upon which it 

 preys to a place, generally the deserted hole of a water rat, 

 where it dissects the flesh from the bones of the fish, keeping 

 them together to form its nest which consists of many thousand 

 of these small bones." (Miller's " Doncaster," 1804, p. 17.) 



Thomas Allis, 1844, wrote : — 



Alcedo ispida. — Common Kingfisher — W. Eddison says they breed 

 near Huddersfield, and used to be very common, but the destructive 



