Birds. 2497 



and sixth feathers tipped on outer web with white : shafts of feathers black. Four 

 middle tail-feathers black, stiff and pointed : the next on each side black ; terminal 

 half white, occupying a larger space on the outer than on the inner web ; two outer 

 feathers on each side white. Chin, throat, breast, belly, vent and under tail-coverts 

 white. Legs, toes and claws blackish. Length of specimen 8 inches. From carpal 

 joint to end of wing 4| inches. First feather very short ; second feather two inches 

 longer than the first and one inch shorter than the third ; third, fourth, fifth and sixth 

 feathers nearly the same length, but the fourth and fifth rather the longest in the 

 wing. There is not a trace of red on any part of the bird. The above-described spe- 

 cimen was bought by me as a variety of the great spotted woodpecker ; but as soon 

 as I began to examine it, the immense difference between it and the two described 

 British species of black and white woodpeckers was very apparent. The great 

 amount of white, the entire absence of red, and the size being intermediate between 

 our British species, readily distinguish it from the great and little spotted woodpeckers ; 

 but not having any books of reference by me, I am unable to determine its species. 

 (Query, what is the Picus medius like ?) Now that attention has been called to it, 

 perhaps it will be found to have occurred many times in England. When it came 

 into my possession, portions of the flesh were still adhering to the wing and leg-bones 

 and to the head. — Edmund Thomas Higgins ; York, June 2, 1849. 



[I have shown this description to two eminent ornithologists, neither of whom has 

 decided on any species to which it can refer. — E. Newman.'] 



Nesting of the Great and Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers at Peasemarsh, Sussex. — I was 

 informed yesterday that there was a nest of young ' nuthatches ' in a plum-tree, in a 

 garden at the above place ; and, being anxious to obtain some young ' nuthatches,' I 

 accordingly went to Peasemarsh last evening, and found the hole in which the said 

 nest was placed, and which was not more than four yards from the house, to contain 

 five lesser spotted woodpeckers, nearly full-fledged. I shot the old birds, and then 

 took the five young ones, all of which are in my possession. A few days since I found 

 in an ash tree a nest of the great spotted woodpecker, containing one egg : I obtained 

 the female bird. — J. B. Ellman; Rye, June 13, 1849, 



Occurrence of the Roller (Coracius garrula) in Sussex. — A specimen of the roller 

 was shot on the 29th of last May, near Nutley, on the borders of Ashdown Forest. 

 It proved on dissection to be a male ; and a cockchaffer, with the remains of several 

 other large Coleoptera, were found in its stomach. — William May ; East Grinstead, 

 Sussex, June, 1849. 



Occurrence of the Ringed Plover (Charadrius hiaticula), Turnstone (Strepsilas in- 

 terpres), Spotted Crake (Crex porzana) and Grasshopper Warbler (Salicaria Locustella) 

 in Cambridgeshire. — Three ringed plovers and a turnstone were shot on the banks of 

 the Cam, in the second week of May, 1849 ; and in the first week of the same month, 

 near Cambridge, a spotted crake and grasshopper warbler. — W. E. Cater; Queens 

 College, Cambridge, May 25, 1849. 



Occurrence of the Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) in Aberdeenshire. — I have ascer- 

 tained beyond a doubt that a specimen of the purple heron occurred in the parish in 

 which I reside, about the beginning of March, 1847. It came from the south-east, 

 and alighted in a marshy piece of ground near to a farm-house, where it was shot. 

 It was a large and very handsome bird, and measured five feet across from tip to tip 

 of the expanded wings. As the individual by whom it was killed was much struck 

 with the beauty of its plumage, and as he had never seen a heron of a similar 



