NOTES AND QUERIES. 351 



Addition to the Avifauna of the Faeroe Islands. — I am indebted to 

 Mr. Edward Hargitt for handing over to me a portion of his specimens of 

 birds collected in the Faeroe Islands, and lately, when arranging them, I 

 was pleased to discover in the collection two examples of the Bar-tailed 

 Godwit, Limosa lapponica (Linn.), a species not hitherto recorded from the 

 Fseroe Islands; one, a male in breeding plumage, procured by Herr H. C. 

 MiiUer near Thorshavn on the 14th of June, 1878; the other, in autumn 

 plumage, but without note of sex, nor date of capture, obtained by the 

 same gentleman on the Island of Stromoe. Whilst on the subject of birds 

 from the Fasroes, I may refer to the catalogue of a sale at Stevens's in 

 Covent Garden on the 25th April, 1887, wherein lot 179 is described as a 

 fine clutch (2) of Great Northern Diver, Faroes, 1880. Mr. Howard 

 Saunders, who attended the sale, informs me that the eggs were un- 

 questionably those of Colyiiibtts glacialis ; but I may point out that the 

 locality given is doubtless an error, for the Great Northern Diver has never 

 been known to breed in the Fasroe Islands.— H. W. Feilden. 



The Green Woodpecker an Egg-sucker. — We are well aware how 

 readily a " bad name" attaches itself to any unfortunate object obtaining it, 

 and thus it is with some degree of diffidence I make an accusation against 

 the bird named, for it is a species giving such a marked characteristic to 

 many of our woodlands in the South of England, that I should be sorry if 

 any words of mine helped on the destruction of a single individual. Some 

 two or three seasons ago a gamekeeper asked me if I knew that the Green 

 Woodpecker was often as destructive to eggs as the Jay or Magpie, and 

 that more than once he had seen a bird attacking his pheasants' eggs. I 

 felt very sceptical on the point, and explained to him as well as I could 

 that this species of Woodpecker often feeds upon ants and their pupas, for 

 which it naturally descended to the ground, and that often the beak of the 

 bird was covered with dirt from the mere fact of its searching about and 

 probing in the earth ior such prey. No doubt many readers of this journal 

 have seen this crimson-crowned forester scrutinising an ant-hill, thrusting 

 in its bill to the utter confusion of the active inhabitants, and then securing, 

 with its barbed and glutinous tongue, a plentiful meal of the ants as they 

 ran hither and thither in their anxiety to protect the pupae. Upon making 

 enquiries of those who, by their occupation as woodmen, &c., would be 

 likely to know anything of this subject of egg-stealing, I found that the 

 majority seemed to be ignorant of the matter with regard to the bird in 

 question, whilst a few spoke of it as well known. This season, however, I 

 have had a more conclusive proof, viz., about the beginning of May a wood- 

 man told me he had seen a Woodpecker rifling a nest, and I asked him if 

 he could secure me a bird taken in the act of egg-sucking. During the 

 month I received three specimens — all males — with the following results on 

 dissection: — 1. Beak and plumage of head very dirty; throat and crop 



