Birds. 915 



I have been thus particular in describing the present specimen, 

 from a wish having been expressed in the ' Cornish Fauna,' that such 

 should always be done. For that " there is no class of the larger 

 animals of which so little is definitely known as of the whale tribe ;" 

 it is therefore much to be wished, that in every instance where one is 

 taken, or thrown on shore, that measurements and descriptions should 

 be taken.* 



R. Q. Couch. 



Chapel-street, Penzance. 



Notes on the Birds of the Isle of Wight. 



(Continued from page 644.) 



By the Rev. Chas. A. Bury. 



I resume my account of the birds of the Isle of Wight with the 

 climbers, in which we are remarkably poor, though it would, I think, 

 be difficult to assign a satisfactory reason for this poverty. We have 

 wood enough, though perhaps not much of old and decayed timber. 

 The want of such trees will, with many persons, probably account 

 for the absence of the woodpeckers, but it does not satisfy me ; for I 

 have known the common green woodpecker to abound in other dis- 

 tricts not more rich in these supposed attractions. This, however, is 

 certain, be the cause what it may, the Green Woodpecker, so gene- 

 rally distributed over the country, and so abundant on the opposite 

 coast of Hampshire, is with us rarissima avis. R. Loe has seen it 

 once ; and that is the only well authenticated instance of its occur- 

 rence I have heard of. 



The Great Black Woodpecker has appeared once. The Ven. 

 Archdeacon Hill shot one many years ago in his garden at Shanklin 

 Parsonage. 



The Great Spotted Woodpecker is now rare ; but was less so once. 

 I have seen three or four specimens that were killed a few years back ; 

 but the living bird I have not seen or heard. 



Hie Wryneck is common ; particularly in my immediate neigh- 

 bourhood. Nor is it at all a shy bird with us : I have known a pair 

 rear their brood for years successively in a hole in one of the " up- 

 rights" of a rustic cottage which was inhabited. 



The common Creeper is rather abundant. I not unfrequently meet 



* During the latter part of February three specimens were caught at Plymouth ; 

 and many others have been seen off the Lizard since the specimen described above 

 was taken — R. Q. C. 



