2C6 BoLLES (3« ^^e TeJlotv-belli'ed Woodpecker. IJu'y 



readers of this paper to have quoted in connection with the pres- 

 ent sketch, the experience of the late Philip Henry Gosse, Esq., 

 published in March, 1S47. On page 400 of 'The Birds of Ja- 

 maica,' the author speaks of the only Tropic Bird he was aware 

 of under the head of Pha'dtJio^t cet/icrens Linn. — a single bird 

 which he "presumes to have been an immature individual" ; and 

 says further : "It is mentioned to me as one of the constant fre- 

 quenters of the Pedro Kays." This is the only individual from 

 the mainland that came under the notice of this ver\' careful ob- 

 server, and it is the more curious, inasmuch as Mr. Gosse re- 

 sided, while in Jamaica, on the sea coast. In speaking of his 

 work, on page 70 of his 'Birds of Jamaica' he says, "Every day- 

 through the winter months, my almost undivided attention was 

 given to birds; and .... from August to April about thirteen 

 hundred specimens of birds fell into my hands, more than one 

 thousand of which were shot by mvself and my servants." The 

 Pedro Kays mentioned are four small islands, situated some forty 

 to fifty miles southwest of Portland Point on the south coast of 

 Jamaica. It seems hardly probable, that the Yellow-billed 

 Tropic Bird could have been as common in Gosse's day as now, 

 for so conspicuous a species as it is at present could hardly have 

 escaped the observation of so keen a worker, aided as he was by 

 friends in almost every part of the island, the parish of Portland 

 being referred to many times in his work. In reviewing in the 

 present series of papers the work that has been accomplished 

 during the past winter, I shall have occasion from time to time 

 to make further comparisons, for the ver}' accurate records left 

 by Mr. Gosse form a basis for such work, and elements have en- 

 tered into the fauna of the Island that have greatly modified the 

 avifauna as it existed a little more than fifty years ago. 



YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKERS AND THEIR 

 UNINVITED GUESTS. 



BY FRANK BOLLES. 



Of the seven species of Woodpeckers which I have found in 

 the region of Mt. Chocorua, New Hampshire, the Yellow-bellied 



