4796 Tue ZooLocist—F rBRUARY, 1876. 
district throughout the year, as well as of the chiffchaff with its subdued 
song. I have to-day seen at Mr. Vingoe’s a female blackcap, in the flesh 
and in good condition, killed a few miles to the eastward of Penzance.— 
Edward Hearle Rodd ; Penzance, December 23, 1875. 
Dartford Warbler, Green Woodpecker and Starling at the Land’s End.— 
The green woodpecker, for thirty years of my residence at Penzance, was a 
bird unknown in the west of Cornwall, with the exception of one or two 
occasionally seen at Tulowarren, near the Lizard, and near Truro. The 
species is now becoming diffused in every direction about the Land’s End 
district, without reference to trees or woodlands. The Dartford warbler, 
which I failed to discover myself for many years, may now be seen in 
nearly every furze-brake about the district. There is no bird, in point of 
numbers, that shows such an extraordinary increase as the common starling, 
which resort to our marshes and low shrubberies in countless thousands 
throughout the winter. Another fact connected with the starling in our 
county is the permanent residence of the bird during the breeding season, 
which in former years never was observed, but every year their numbers 
have been increasing and extending westward.—TId. 
The Stain on the Blackheaded Warbler (Sylvia melanocephala, Gm.).— 
The remarkable stain on the chin of the blackheaded warbler,—one of the 
best known of Sylviads in Southern Europe,—which led to Lindermeyer's 
conferring upon it another and a new specific name, has been commented 
upon once already in these pages (S. 8. 2714). It is there stated to have 
arisen, in Major Irby’s judgment, from contact with the berries of the 
‘pepper tree,” and not, as I surmised, from the Cactus opuntia. It seems, 
however, that the point is not dismissed yet, for I observe that in his last 
work (* Ornithology of the Straits of Gibraltar’) that author reconsiders his 
dictum, and ascribes the stain to three plants—the cactus, the aloe, and 
the “pepper tree.” Count Mile, also,—another scientific observer,— 
attributes it to the cactus; so I am led to revert to my first guess as the 
right one, but whether it was the fruit, the pollen, or the red flower that 
gave the stain I am not botanist enough to decide.—J. H. Gurney, jun. 
Crossbills alighting on Ships.—In my note on the American white- 
winged crossbill which flew on board the ‘ Beecher Stowe,’ I omitted to 
state that it is not unusual for ships—particularly, I am informed, smacks 
which carry a light in their bows—to bring into Great Yarmouth cross- 
bills (of the commoner species) which have alighted on the masts and 
rigging.—Id. 
Starlings and Rooks often peck with their Beaks open.—With reference 
to the mandibles of rooks leaving two bayonet-shaped holes in gigantic puff- 
balls, I would remind Mr. Sclater that the common startling is said to peck 
the ground with its mandibles apart, and not closed, by no less an authority 
than our worthy Editor. If he will turn to page 2682 of the ‘ Zoologist’ 
