NOTES AND QUERIES. 395 



BIRDS. 



Black Guillemot on the Solway Firth. — My son shot a specimen 

 of the Black Guillemot on the Solway Firth on August 1st. It was in 

 immature plumage, and has been carefully preserved. This is only the 

 second example of this species which I nave seen on the Firsth during the 

 last seven years. It is a rare bird with us. — J. J. Armistead (Solway 

 Fishery, Dumfries). 



Reported occurrence of the Black Woodpecker in the New Forest. 

 — In answer to your questions, I feel perfectly certain that I saw a pair of 

 Great Black Woodpeckers, Picus martins, on a beech at Stony Cross on 

 the afternoon of May 14th, 1889. In my mind's eye I can see them now. 

 Oh, the insult of suggesting that we might have mistaken a pair of Jackdaws 

 for them ! You must know that we were brought up in the country, where 

 Woodpeckers abounded, at any rate the Green and the Greater Spotted, 

 and to the Lesser Spotted I was introduced twenty years ago — to a dead 

 specimen, at least, on a keeper's gibbet, But, to return to our friends of 

 Stony Cross, I am bad at calculating distances, but I should say they were 

 not more than twenty yards off. We watched them for some time, and 

 I made a little sketch of them in my book. If only we had a glass, 

 I might have sworn to every feather. I remember how tame they seemed, 



or at least how oblivious of our presence I found the date 



immediately in John's * British Birds in their Haunts,' but I have also 

 the entry in my journal, " Saw a pair of Black Woodpeckers close to," &c. — 

 Mrs. Anderson (Lea Hall, Gainsborough). — [Communicated by Rev. J. E. 

 Kelsall.] 



Lesser Whitethroat breeding in Carnarvonshire.— On the 27th May 

 last we found a nest of the Lesser Whitethroat, Sylvia curruca, containing 

 a single egg, near Abersoch, on Cardigan Bay. It was placed in a gorse- 

 bush, about a foot above a small stream. The nest was neatly built of grass, 

 lined with finer bents and a little horsehair, and was unusually deep for 

 this species. The bird slipped away on our approach, and sneaked through 

 the undergrowth, so that we were not able to see it clearly. Is this not 

 rather far west for the Lesser Whitethroat to breed? — T. A. Coward 

 (Bowdon). 



[Its occurrence in Breconshire in 1886 was noted by Mr. Cambridge 

 Phillips. See ' Zoologist,' 1886, p. 418.— Ed.] 



Black Tern in Warwickshire. — On August 12th an immature Black 

 Tern had taken up its abode on Powell's Pool, the largest of six pools in 

 Sutton Coldfield Park. It spent most of its time resting upon a stump 

 that projected about a foot out of the water. When upon the wing it 

 frequented that part of the pool nearest the large reed-bed and marsh* and 



