NOTES — ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. I27 



BIRDS. 



Great Spotted Woodpecker at Fowlness with 

 Notes on the Natural History of the Island. — On 

 September 26th, 1903, I received by post from Mr. Matthams, of 

 Fowlness, a specimen of the Great Spotted Woodpecker 

 (Deudvocopus niajov), whicli had been shot on the island. It was 

 a bird of the year, but unfortunately it was too stale for preserva- 

 tion. Mr. Matthams informs me that in default of a tree it was 

 overhauling a linen-post, and he believes it was a " foreigner." 

 This is probably true, as September is the season for the autum 

 migration. The letter containing this information is so full of 

 interest that I propose to make some further quotations from it. 

 He says that Fowlness is a landing-place for a number of birds, 

 a statement I can fully corroborate, as I have never seen, in a 

 day, so many hawks, large and small, as I have observed at this 

 time of the year in that island. Mr. Matthams says also that in 

 October of late years there have been, in addition to man^^ 

 other birds, large numbers of crows and rooks arriving^, 

 accompanied by an abundance of jackdaws. There are generally 

 said to be French, but, w'herever they come from, the numbers 

 passing over in a day may be reckoned by hundreds. Some few 

 years ago they had to fly against a very strong north wind, and 

 several were seen to drop in the water, only a few hundred yards 

 from land. Referring to the high tide of a few years ago, which 

 flooded so much marsh land in Essex and Kent, Mr. Matthams 

 informs me the land is slowly coming round now, and that he 

 should have had a very fair crop this year had he not been 

 pestered with wire-worms. They cleared the crops on some 

 marshes right ofl". He sowed one marsh with oats again, but 

 the wire-worms destroyed that crop also, and he expresses his 

 surprise that the flooding with salt water did not destroy all such 

 life. But these are not the only vermin that have been trouble- 

 some ; for the second and third year after the flood the land 

 swarmed with " sow^-bugs," as they call woodlice there. Where 

 they came from was a puzzle. On reading these remarks, I 

 think it will be felt that it is much to be recfretted there are not 

 more of such intelligent observers throughout the country. I 

 know I felt the want very much when compiling my list of the 

 fish, etc., of Essex, and I hope Mr. Matthams may long be able 

 to observe and report other interesting matters occurring in his 



