BIRDS. 131 



They seem to have been procured in most of the islands of 

 the group from N. Konaldsay southwards. Some that were 

 shot in Sanday, in October 1870, were sent to the museum at 

 St. Andrews. 



Dr. J. F. M'Conaghy sends Mr. Spence the following note : 

 " Woodpeckers (Norwegian). Two shot in Sanday in Sept. 

 1868. Numbers of these birds were seen in N. Ronaldsay and 

 Sanday. The weather, previous to their arrival, had been 

 remarkable for strong gales from the west. It was considered 

 that these specimens might be American, but Dr. Rae felt 

 confident that they were Norwegian. It was interesting and 

 melancholy to see a flock of these birds alight on a number 

 of logs of wood, part of a cargo of a ship wrecked on the east 

 side of Sanday, and begin vigorously to tap the wood accord- 

 ing to their habit." 



Mr. Moodie-Heddle saw a single Woodpecker tapping at 

 the posts put up for wire-fencing at Melsetter in Sept. 1887; 

 and Mr. W. Irvine-Fortescue saw a bird in the garden of West- 

 ness, Rousay, in 1887. 



The Great Spotted Woodpecker would seem to be a some- 

 what early migrant, as it has been seen in Orkney both in the 

 middle and end of September. 



Picus minor, L. Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. 



At present we have no further notice of the occurrence of this 

 bird in Orkney than the one the editor of Low's work mentions 

 having killed at Stromness in the winter of 1774; and another 

 recorded by Baikie and Heddle as having been seen in Sanday 

 in 1823. 



Gecinus viridis (L.). Green Woodpecker. 



Since Baikie and Heddle's time, we have only heard of one 

 instance of the occurrence of the Green Woodpecker in Orkney. 

 Mr. T. W. Ranken informs us that he saw a specimen of 

 this bird in his garden at Kirkwall in July 1885. It was cling- 

 ing to a high branch of a sycamore, and kept moving upwards 

 in a direction more or less oblique, and the tapping it made in 

 its search for food was quite distinctly heard, and attracted his 



