NUTCRACKER. GREEN WOODPECKER. 285 



Mr. Gould) regard the bird with the straight and stout 

 beak as the male, and the other as the female. In three 

 specimens I shot this was the case, and both birds are 

 always together." The same point, as regards the 

 nutcrackers, could be easily established by dissection, 

 and will not be, I hope, lost sight of by those who may 

 have the opportunity of examining fresh killed speci- 

 mens of either kind. The Gorleston bird with the 

 narrow pointed beak was certainly a male, and so also 

 was the Wisbech specimen, but the sex of the EoUesby 

 and Yarmouth birds was, unfortunately, not recorded. 

 A nutcracker is stated by Messrs. Sheppard and 

 Whitear to have occurred some years ago at South- 

 wold, in Suffolk. 



PICUS VIRIDIS, Linn^us. 



GEEEN WOODPECKEE. 



This handsome species is by no means uncommon 

 throughout the year, and but for the attractions of its 

 brilliant plumage would, no doubt, be more generally 

 met with ; the stuffed specimens, however, so often seen 

 in keepers' cottages, and the numbers that pass into 

 the hands of our bird preservers to make " show" cases 

 for casual customers, will in some degree account for 

 their limited increase. The sharp winter of 1860-1 was 

 remarkable for the very large quantity killed in different 

 parts of the county, one bird-stuffer in Norwich having 

 between twenty and thirty brought in for preservation 

 during a short period of severe frost ; but with this 

 single exception, I have never known these birds to 

 suffer much from the severity of the weather, or to 

 present themselves, even at such seasons, in more than 

 their ordinary numbers. Their simultaneous appearance 



