NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 2/9 



The Nightingale is said to be not at all abundant in Hereford- 

 shire (p. 15), and almost confined to the southern half of the 

 county ; but its numbers vary very much in different seasons. 

 The Eev. Clement Ley writes : — " I have known them in certain 

 years so numerous at Sellack, near Eoss, as to be positively 

 troublesome by the nocturnal disturbance they cause. In other 

 seasons they have been almost entirely absent." 



A curious site for Sand Martins' nests is mentioned at p. 45, 

 a number of these birds having "recently established them- 

 selves in the mound at the back of the rifle-butts, Warham." 



The Cirl Bunting is stated (p. 59) to be not an uncommon 

 bird in Herefordshire. 



The Black Woodpecker, Picas mar thus, comes again to the 

 fore (p. 91), and the Editor states that there can be no doubt of 

 its having been observed on several occasions in Herefordshire. 

 Capt. Mayne Beid is stated to have seen two specimens in the 

 woods near his residence at Frogmore, Boss, and although, as 

 every one knows, this well-known author was much given to 

 romancing, he may on the occasion referred to have been 

 perfectly serious. 



The Bev. Clement Ley saw a Great Black Woodpecker at 

 Buckhall Wood, Eaton Bishop, about the year 1874, and pointed 

 it out to his cousin, Mr. Edward Du Buisson, who also saw it 

 there. On writing to Mr. Ley on the subject, he replied that 

 " he had not the least doubt about it," and that, besides this 

 instance, he has on two or three occasions heard the note 

 of this bird in the neighbourhood of Boss, without being able to 

 get a sight of it. The secret of meeting with rare birds in 

 England, he adds, is to be found in familiarising oneself with 

 their notes in countries where they are more common. Thus, 

 by learning the note of the Great Black Woodpecker on the 

 Continent, he has met with this bird on several occasions in 

 England, the last occasion being in 1876 at Mount Edgecombe, 

 in Devonshire, where he not only heard the note, but "got a fine 

 view of the bird." Then Mr. D. B. Chapman is stated to have 

 seen a Great Black Woodpecker at Belmont (about a mile from 

 where Messrs. Ley and Du Buisson had seen it, as already 

 mentioned) in the spring of 1879. "His attention was called 

 to it by his son, as it flew from a copse to a tree standing in open 

 ground. To make sure of the species, he crawled along the 



