The Zoologist^January, 1869. 1515 



sight of, ibe old rookery. In the same parish there is a rookery on the trees (about 

 forty in number) forming an avenue from the main road lo the rectory -house: in my 

 youthful days, as well as I can recollect, there must have been as many as forty or 

 fifty nests there; but withont any change in the trees, excepting their growth, the 

 number of nests have been decreasing : in the year 1866 they had dwindled to two: 

 the following year the rooks had entirely forsaken the place, but this year four pairs 

 returned and nested there. Why they should have left I am at a loss to conjecture, 

 as the trees are in full vigour, and upwards of forty feet in height. I have always 

 been inclined to doubt that rooks were carrion eaters, bnt during the very hot weather 

 of the past summer my doubts were removed by seeing a cumber of rooks feeding off 

 a dead sheep : there were many rooks on and about the sheep, within fifty yards of me, 

 those on the sheep so plainly feeding that I can no longer doubt the fact ; yet 1 believe 

 they would reject carrion if they could procure their natural food. The rookeries of 

 this neighbourhood are generally small: there are a dozen or more within a radius of 

 seven or eight miles of this phice, the largest I think being at Trelawne, where they 

 average more than three hundred nests annually. — Stephen Clngg. 



Great Spotted Woodpecker in Morayshire.— On the 16ih of November, while 

 engaged in a pine-wood here, hunting for the pupae of Trachea piniperda, I saw a very 

 fine specimen of Picus major, a species, I believe, very rare so far north as Moray- 

 shire. On the 1st of the same month I had a specimen of this bird sent me by a 

 gamekeeper, who had seen several others: he told me the bird was quite new to him, 

 and I have little doubt of their being all migrants from Norway, as they appeared 

 about the same time as the woodcock. — George Norman; Cluny Hill, Forres, N. B. 



Nidification of Woodpecker.— On the 8th of May last, knowing a woodpecker's 

 nest, I enlarged the hole by cutting, &c., sufficiently to admit my arm, hoping to find 

 eggs, but was disappointed. Two days after, on passing the spot and seeing the bird 

 fly out of its hole, I put my hand in and found to my surprise two eggs. These 

 I took, and, acting on the prin( iple of " exchange no robbery," substituted blackbird's 

 eggs. This exchauge went on for the next three days. On the 15th, however, 

 I found the blackbird's e^'gs, together with one of their own (laid that morning), 

 turned out aud broken. Nevertheless, next morning I took another egg from the 

 nest, and not having one with me for substitution, I lefi the nest empty. On the 21st 

 I got four more, having taken in all eleven, not including the one broken. — G. W. P. 

 Moor; Great Healings, Suffolk, November 1.3, 1868. 



Great Black Woodpecker in Leadenhall Market. — I am indebted to Mr. Gatcombe 

 {who has been successful in obtaining some of our rarest birds in the London markets) 

 for an unskinned specimen of the great black woodpecker, obtnined by him in 

 Leadenhall on the 6lh of November. Mr. Gatcombe supposes it was from Sweden, 

 as it came with some capercaillie,but the dealer who had it said that it was consigned 

 lo him from Hull. The stomach was remarkably thin, and contained (as Mr. Cor- 

 deaux, who examined it, informs me) nothing but turpentine and insect remains. — 

 J. H. Gurney,jun. 



Great Black Woodpecker (Picus martins). — I lately received, through the kindness 

 of Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., the stomach of this bird to dissect. This stomach, the 

 muscular coat of which was very thin, smelt very strongly of turpentine, and contained 

 a dark, thick, oily fluid, which I believe was almost pure turpentine. It was well 

 filled with insects, all of one sort: they are probably the larvte of the snake-fly 



