4838 Tue Zootocist—Marcu, 1876. 
ago, and which I recorded in the ‘ Huddersfield Naturalist’s Journal’ (vol. i., 
p. 148). The bird was an adult male, and was shot in this neighbourhood 
in June, 1861. I have now in my possession an old jackdaw very prettily 
pied with white feathers on the wing-coverts and rump, somewhat in form 
of a crescent now the wings are closed; it has also a patch of white on the 
abdomen, and each of the outer tail-feathers are also white.—T. E. Gunn; 
Norwich, February 5, 1876. 
Woodpeckers,—I can bear testimony to the correctness of the remark 
quoted from the journal of the late Dr. Saxby (S. S. 4723), as to the “ close- 
ness with which the skin adheres to the body” of woodpeckers, and this is 
especially the case down the vertebra, where it sometimes seems as if the 
skin is glued to the flesh, so firmly does it adhere. I have also observed the 
same thing, but in a less marked degree, in a specimen or two of the barn 
owl, but in every instance the bird was in poor condition: I never observed 
it in a bird that was fat. Woodpeckers are seldom fat, though sometimes 
plump—at least this is the case with the few I have handled; but I have 
no wish to prove that leanness is the cause of adhesion to the skin, although 
it has a tendency in that direction.—G. B. Corbin. 
[The rarity or almost entire absence of the common green woodpecker in 
the Isle of Wight has long been a subject of great interest with me. The 
naturalists residing in the island repudiate this idea, and a correspondent 
for whom I have the most sincere respect assures me that he clearly 
recollects his grandfather having told him that he had once seen a green 
woodpecker in the island. 'The Rey. C. A. Bury also says (Zool. 915), “ The 
green woodpecker is generally distributed over the county, and, although so 
abundant on the opposite coast of Hampshire, is with us a rarissima avis: 
R. Lee has seen it once.” Has this bird a disinclination to cross salt water ? 
and has a similar distaste for the briny deterred Picus martius from visiting 
Britain ?—Edward Newman.]} 
Plumage of the Great Spotted Woodpeeker.—The white woodpecker 
(Picus major) having a red head, mentioned by Mr. Capper (S. 8. 4797), is 
evidently in immature plumage. The young of both sexes have the crown 
of the head red: this is entirely lost in the plumage of the adult female, 
and retained only at the back of the head in the male. This forms the 
chief distinction in the sexes in mature plumage. I remember in two 
instances having specimens of Picus major (in the adult state) with partly 
brown wings and tail.—T7. FE. Gunn. 
Erratum.—Zool 8. 8. 4750, eight lines from the top, for summer falcon 
read lanner faleon.—T. L). G. 
Toucans in England in the Seventeenth Century.—The following are two 
curious extracts from old works which treat of Natural History. Apparently 
they refer to the same species, though not to the same bird. No one would 
think now of letting the toucan into our fauna, yet these old worthies looked 
ee Pe 
a 
“ 
