342 picidtE. 



was " very tame," and was engaged pecking into a tree when fired 

 at. It seemed to be unaccompanied by any of its species. 



Towards the end of the year 1845, four of these woodpeckers 

 were obtained in different counties, ranging from north to south. 

 One shot on the 29th of October at Carrick, the seat of Colonel 

 Blacker, near Portadown, county of Armagh, was sent to Belfast 

 to be preserved, and came under my inspection. This bird had 

 almost attained perfect adult plumage, — a very few red feathers 

 still remained on the top of the head, — but was in high moult, and, 

 in the process of being skinned, so many feathers came out as to 

 render it unfit to be set up. Mrs. Blacker informed me, that this 

 woodpecker had kept about the old trees around the house at 

 Carrick, for a month previous to being shot, — which was done 

 contrary to orders, — and that the noise occasioned by its pecking 

 was heard for some time before this was known to proceed from a 

 bird. I have been told by T. W. Warren, Esq., of Dublin, that 

 one was procured on the 15th of November, on the estate of the 

 Hon. Somerset Maxwell, near Newtownbarry, county of Wexford ; 

 and that on the 6th of December, another (a female) was killed 

 near Bagnalstown, county of Carlow : — they were seen by my 

 informant in a fresh state. On the 17th of December, a beauti- 

 ful specimen, shot the day before at Edenderry, near Belfast, by 

 Houston Russell, Esq., was brought to me for examination. It 

 exhibited precisely the markings shown in YarrelTs figure. The 

 only red appearing on the head, was in two small feathers tipped 

 with that colour. This bird was in pen-feathers, but was fit to 

 be set up : had it been killed a fortnight sooner, it would not have 

 been so. On dissection, it proved a female, although red appeared 

 in the plumage of the head; its stomach was entirely filled with 

 the remains of one species of coleopterous insect, " apparently an 

 Hylurgus" (A. H. Haliday). On October the 20th, 1848, one 

 of these woodpeckers was shot within three miles of the town 

 of Wicklow* 



I have little doubt that these birds, and the one obtained in 

 1839, visited Ireland on their migratory movement southward, 

 * Mr. T. W. Warren, 



