386 BRITISH BIRDS. 



SUPPOSED BLACK WOODPECKER IN NOTTINGHAM- 

 SHIRE. 



A FEW days after Christmas of 1907 Mr. Francis Hall was 

 walking in his grounds at Park Hall, near Mansfield, when a 

 bird flew across in front of him and settled on the stem of a 

 big tree. I may here say that Mr. Hall has also property in 

 Canada, where he spends a portion of each year. Directly he 

 saw the bird he said to himself, "Why. it is a Cock-of-the- 

 woods " — the pojiular name of the Canadian Northern Wood- 

 pecker. After watching the bird for some time he saw it was 

 shorter in length and stouter than the Canadian bird, Avith 

 which he is quite familiar and of which he has a stuffed specimen 

 at Park Hall. The bird then flew deeper amongst the trees 

 and was lost to sight. Two or three days after, Mrs. Hall, 

 when looking out of the billiard-room window, saw a strange 

 bird in an old thorn tree on the edge of the lawn and drew 

 Mr. Hall's attention to it. He at once saw it was the same 

 bird and got a pair of field-glasses, and both he and Mrs. Hall 

 had time to look at it before it flew away. This quite con- 

 firmed his former opinion that it was a Black Woodpecker 

 {Picus martius), and had he known that the occurrence of 

 the bird in this country was not yet authenticated he could 

 have procured the specimen, for he had ample time to get his 

 gun. Mr. Hall is quite familiar with the three British Wood- 

 peckers, and says the bird he saw was half as large again as 

 the Green Woodpecker, and was black with a scarlet top to 

 its head. 



Shortly before this, when a party of us were shooting some 

 big woods about five miles from Park Hall, the keeper told 

 me he had twice seen a black Jay — at least, he thought it 

 could be nothing else. He had never been very near it, but 

 saw it clearly flying through the trees, and it was about as big 

 as a Jay and quite black — of this he was quite certain. 



J. Whitaker. 



STOCK-DOVES NESTING ON LINCOLN MINSTER. 



During the last few years I have noticed that Stock-Doves 

 {Columba cenas) are in the habit of haunting the towers of 

 Lincoln Minster. It is evident also that they breed there, as 

 last summer I saw two young birds in a sheltered corner on 

 the central tower, only a few feet from the bell " Great Tom," 

 on which the hours are struck. 



At the present time two or three pairs may be seen about 

 the Cathedral in company with the Jackdaws and Domestic 

 Pigeons. They can easily be distinguished with a good field- 



