LEHERS 



GREEN WOODPECKER EATING AN APPLE. 



To the Editors of British Birds. 



Sirs, — Is it generally known that the Green Woodpecker eats 

 fruit ? I watched one on October 23rd making a hearty meal off an 

 apple a few yards from my window, and since then many large 

 apples picked up plainly show the marks of this bird's powerful 

 bill. My gardener, who has lived here all his life, tells me he never 

 saw one touch an apple before, though they frequent the orchard 

 from the adjoining pine-woods. Arthur R. Gillman. 



Hkath Vat.e, Farnham, December I2th, 1913. 



BREEDING-HABITS AND YOUNG OF ROSEATE TERNS. 



To the Editors of British Birds. 



Sirs, — I was much interested in Mr. Humphreys's remarks on the 

 nesting of these birds in Ireland [antea, pp. 186-9). His observation on 

 the number of eggs entirely agrees with my ow^n on a large colony 

 in Great Britain. I must have examined upwards of two hundred 

 " nests." My visit was on July 13th, when incubation was in most 

 cases far advanced (in fact several young were already hatched), but 

 only in about a dozen cases was the parent bird brooding more than 

 a single egg, not one clutch contained three. There was a large 

 colony of Common Terns at the same place ; their nests were on the 

 higher flat portion of the land, while the Roseate Terns preferred the 

 rocky sides and had in many instances laid their eggs in cracks or 

 small fissures without any attempt at a nest. Whereas the j'^oung 

 in down of the Common and Arctic Terns are so much alike that it 

 is exceedingly difficult to separate them, the Roseate Terns are 

 absolutely distinct, the down might almost be described as " hair- 

 like " and of a totally different pattern, far nearer the Sandwich 

 Tern of the same age. I spent six hoiu-s watching the Terns, and it 

 was curious to notice how every few minutes the whole colony would 

 rise, as if actuated by a single impulse, and fly far out to sea, only 

 to return and brood immediately. The exodus continued at intervals 

 during my entire stay, and it is a mystery how the eggs ever hatch 

 out. In the midst of this vast assemblage of Common and Roseate 

 Terns, a single pair of Arctics had their nest. 



