310 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



get within a couple of yards of the nest before the hen bird fluttered away, 

 close to the ground, and went on to the lake. On a precipice near 

 Meiringen we were much delighted to observe the Wall-creeper (TicJiodroma 

 muraria). We saw the bird alight on the rock and creep about with little 

 jerks, disappearing at times into a crevice. The rock was fully exposed to 

 the rays of the sun, and through our glasses we could easily distinguish the 

 crimson on the bird's wings. What especially surprised us was its flight, 

 which so much resembles the flight of a small falcon, that when it first left 

 the rock we neither of us thought it was the Wall-creeper that had gone, 

 and only perceived that this was the case when the pseudo-falcon returned, 

 and again began to creep up the rock. At Engelberg Mr. Fowler found 

 the nest of a Grey Wagtail (Motacllla boarula) in a curious position. It 

 was placed on a beam inside a boathouse by the side of a small pond in the 

 hotel garden. The nest was large and untidy, and contained six young 

 which the parents were busy feeding. We saw many other birds which 

 were quite new to me, and heard some songs whose authors have yet to be 

 identified; which only makes us look forward with more eagerness to 

 another year, when we can again pay a visit to such a delightful country. — 

 H. C. Playne (Oxford). 



The Greater Spotted Woodpecker killing a young Pheasant. — 

 While staying lately in Gloucestershire I heard that the keeper had just 

 shot a bird which he called a "French Eagle," and which he said had 

 carried off one of the young Pheasants from the front of the coops. I asked 

 to see the bird, and it turned out to be a Greater Spotted Woodpecker! 

 I " pooh-poohed " the story, and suggested explanations ; but when I saw 

 the keeper, the next day, he stuck to his story, said he saw the bird fly 

 down, pick up a young Pheasant, fly with it up into a tree, and then and 

 there smash the head with its bill, and that he then shot it with the little 

 Pheasant in its claws. The latter, which I saw, was covered with blood. 

 Has any such habit as this been recorded of any species of Woodpecker? 

 Eagle, of course, is evidently a corruption of eccle, heccle, or hick-wall, the 

 local name for a Woodpecker. — J. H. Belfrage (Littleworth Lodge, 

 Esher). 



[Some years ago, when pheasant-shooting near Uckfield, in Sussex, we 

 saw a defunct Green Woodpecker strung up with several Jays, Kestrels, 

 and Magpies upon a " keeper's tree." On pleading with the head-keeper in 

 defence of the Woodpecker, he assured us that he always shot these birds 

 when he had a chance, as they killed his young pheasants. He was not 

 prepared, however, with any evidence in support of this charge (never having 

 caught one in the act), and we came to the conclusion that the real culprits 

 were Jays, whose propensity in this direction has been elsewhere satisfactorily 

 proved. Mr. Borrer, in his ' Birds of Sussex,' writing of the Greater Spotted 

 Woodpecker, says, " I am not aware that it has any local name," but both 



