382 BRITISH BIRDS 



[In connection with the above record we have received 

 further interesting particulars from Lieut. W. Maitland 

 Congreve, R.A., who writes as follows : — " The bird was shot 

 by one of a number of guns (who nearly all fired at the bird, 

 thinking it was a Hawk), the guests of Colonel Mirehouse. 

 The bird was sent to Mr. W. E. de Winton, of Orielton, who 

 at once pronounced it to be an Alpine Swift. It is now 

 stuffed and in the possession of Colonel Mirehouse, and I saw 

 it some weeks ago. The bird is particularly remarkable 

 for the enormous span of the wings. The back is of a dull 

 brown colour ; throat white, then a brown band and belly 

 white. It is not in the least like an ordinary Swift, owing 

 to the white, its size, and the span of its wings." — Eds.] 



DOWNY WOODPECKER {DENDROCOPUS 

 PUBESCENS) IN GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 



On January 14th, 1908, a friend who occasionally shoots 

 birds for me brought me in a little Woodpecker that he had 

 shot that day at Frampton Cotterel, near Bristol. It was 

 climbing up the trunk of an old apple tree some five feet from 

 the ground when shot. I supposed it to be simply a Lesser 

 Spotted Woodpecker, and so labelled it, and it was only after 

 sending the skin to Mr. Marsden, of Tunbridge Wells, last 

 month, that the bird was discovered to be a specimen of the 

 North American Downy Woodpecker {D. pubescens). 



Wm. a. Smallcombe. 



[In connection with this record we have received the follow- 

 ing letter from Mr. H. W. Marsden : — " Amongst some Wood- 

 peckers I received from Mr. Smallcombe there were a male 

 and female, supposed to be Dendrocopus minor. The day I 

 got them I was very busy, and sent on the two skins to the 

 Hon. N. C. Rothschild. He handed them, without examina- 

 tion, to Messrs. Rowland Ward, to be remade, and it was by 

 them the bird was identified as Dendrocopus puhescens. 

 Mr. Smallcombe is quite a young ornithologist, and had 

 probably never seen a foreign skin of D. puhescens.''^ 



Both Mr. Marsden and Messrs. Rowland Ward have satisfied 

 us that this skin was undoubtedly not of American origin 

 (we had suggested that the label might have been inadvertently 

 changed), and that the bird was in fact shot in Gloucester- 

 shire. The record is an interesting one, but we cannot believe 

 that this North American Woodpecker crossed the Atlantic 

 unaided, and ^^■e think that the bird must have escaped from 

 captivity. — Eds]. 



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