NOTES AND QUERIES. 107 



this. Redwings, on the contrary, are not very abundant, and I have seen 

 only one large flock of them this year. Golden Plover are decidedly scarce. — 

 G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton (Kilrnanock, New Ross, Co. Wexford). 



The Great Black Woodpecker in Berkshire. — I have much pleasure 

 in recording what I take to he an undoubted occurrence of this rare British 

 bird, Dryocopus martins, in Berkshire. My friend Capt. F. G. Coleridge, 

 of Twyford, recently informed me that about seven years ago the attention 

 of his wife and himself was suddenly called to the presence of a large black 

 bird with red head in a fruit tree in his garden. Capt. Coleridge got within 

 twenty yards or so of the tree, and had a good opportunity of examining 

 the bird. He describes it as of the size of a Jackdaw, black with red crown. 

 It was tapping away at a dead bough on the fruit tree. I have not the 

 slightest doubt that it was a veritable Great Black Woodpecker. Captain 

 Coleridge is acquainted with all our common British birds, and knows the 

 other Woodpeckers perfectly well. He is also most unlikely to have made 

 a mistake on this occasion, as his father's collection — familiar to him from 

 boyhood — contained two stuffed specimens of D. viartius. — Savile G.Rkid. 



Food of the House Sparrow. — The following remarks on some of the 

 points mentioned in the notice of Mr. J. H. Gurney's pamphlet on the 

 "Misdeeds of the House Sparrow" (Zool. 1887, p. 390), may perhaps be 

 worth publishing: — When collecting insects I have frequently seen 

 Sparrows eagerly chase moths that were disturbed, and pick them from 

 fences and other places where they rest during the dav. For several years 

 some gardeners have taken their meals in a tool-shed, from whence they 

 have been accustomed to scatter crumbs to a number of House Sparrows 

 that collect around the entrance. When the fire was lighted the smoke 

 drove out the moths, often a considerable number, which had taken shelter 

 there, and as they flew out a great many were captured and eaten by the 

 Sparrows waiting outside, who seemed to look out as much for them as for 

 the crumbs. Several times some moths that were caught and pinned for 

 me were carried off by the Sparrows, and on one occasion a Poplar Hawk 

 Moth, Smerinthus populi, th at I had killed and pinned on the window-frame 

 was carried off by a Sparrow, leaving the pin sticking in the wood. Once 

 I saw a Sparrow trying for some time to dislodge a full-grown larva of the 

 Eyed Hawk Moth, 8. ocellatus, and had nearly killed it when I disturbed it. 

 A friend of mine once saw a Sparrow making repeated visits to a gooseberry- 

 bush, returning to its nest with something in its beak, which on closer 

 examination proved to be small caterpillars with which the bush was infested. 

 In answer to Mr. Gurney's request for evidence of their eating the Cranefly 

 (or " daddj'-longlegs"), I have often seen Sparrows with these insects in 

 their beaks with which to feed their young. In the Cemetery here the 

 Sparrows destroy a great number of these insects, and I have often seen 

 several birds at a time confining themselves solely to the pursuit of Crane- 



