192 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. XV. 



who help the Scheme most by ringing most birds. Suggestion (c) 

 however, would save a great deal of clerical work and is warmly wel- 

 comed. Suggestion (b) would be little saving of labour as all the 

 schedules have to be cut up into separate sections before they can be 

 arranged numerically and filed. The financial considerations being 

 thus disposed of, I hope that other "ringers " and readers will give 

 their opinions with reference to promiscuous versus special ringing. — 

 H.F.W.] 



THE GREATER SPOTTED WOODPECKER IN ENGLISH 

 POETRY. 



To the Editors of British Birds. 



Sirs, — I believe the following is the first — and perhaps the only — 

 reference to the Greater Spotted Woodpecker {Dryobates major) in 

 our poetry. It occurs in John Bartlett's " A Booke of Ayres with a 

 Triplicitie of Musicke. . ." (1606) : 



" The little daw, ka-ka, he cried ; 



The hic-quail he beside 

 Tickled his part in parti-coloured coat. 



The jay did blow his hautboy gallantly." 

 Hick-way or Hecco {" The laughing hecco " — Drayton's Polyolbion) 

 was a popular Elizabethan name for the Green Woodpecker {Picus 

 viridis). Hic-quail is, no doubt, a corruption of the same word and 

 has nothing to do with the Quail. But " parti-coloured " suggests the 

 Greater Spotted Woodpecker, especially as its double chirp follows 

 upon the " ka-ka " of the daw. 



H. J. Massingham. 



FORMER BREEDING OF THE OSPREY IN IRELAND. 



To the Editors of British Birds. 



Sirs, — In the Birds of Ireland by Ussher and Warren, 1900, is the 

 statement on p. 149 : " There is no record of the Osprey ever breeding 

 in Ireland." Since that date I have come across two references to the 

 former breeding of this species in Ireland which are, perhaps, worth 

 putting on record in British Birds. 



1. In the Fi'eW for November 13th, 1915, p. 839, appears the following 

 from an old letter of April 23rd, 1683: — 



" In this county (Lei trim) are several eyries of Eagles as also of 

 Ospreys. The latter build on old walls near great rivers and lakes." 



2. In a letter dated July 24th, 1790, from Robert Marsham to Gilbert 

 White, the writer states that when he was on the Lake of Killarney he 

 was told that a pair of Ospreys that yearly nested on an island of rock 

 in that lake used to drive off their young as soon as they were able to 

 provide for themselves. Robert Marsham lived 1 708-1 797, and the 

 letter referred to is printed in The Life and Letters of Gilbert White, 

 Vol. 2, p. 220 (R. Holt-White). In the Birds of Ireland are notices of 

 Ospreys in summer on the Lakes of Killarney, and these were probably 

 visiting a former breeding haunt of that race. 



F. L. Blathwayt. 

 Melbury Osmond, Dorchester, Nov. 30/A, 192 1. 



