26 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



the trunk of a large sycamore in our grounds at the front of the house. 

 In size and colour it looked like a Crow, but its beak was longer, and 

 I could not reconcile the Woodpecker habits to such a large and well- 

 known bird. We watched it for some time going round and round the 

 trunk, picking, no doubt, its food from the crevices in the bark. At 

 last it flew down upon the grass, and was lost to view among the 

 shrubs. Being Sunday, I would not use my gun ; otherwise I certainly 

 would have endeavoured to secure a bird which I had never seen before. 

 We have kept a sharp look-out since, but our new visitor has not ap- 

 peared again. We have a large variety of birds in this county well 

 known to us, but, as this is a decided stranger, I would be glad if any 

 of your readers could give me its name. I may say that there was a 

 keen frost at the time, and an adjoining meadow was nearly covered 

 with ice." Strange to say, several of the previous reported occur- 

 rences of Picus martins have come from Herefordshire ; and in the 

 ' Birds of Breconshire,' by Mr. E. Cambridge Phillips, its appearance 

 in that neighbouring county is recorded (Zool 1885, p. 305). — Gr. 

 Townsend (Polefield, Prestwich, near Manchester). 



Yellow-billed Cuckoo in Somerset. — On Oct. 6th, 1901, a bird of 

 this species (Coccyzus americanus) was shot at Pylle, in Somerset, and 

 forwarded to me for identification. It was in perfect new plumage, 

 bearing no traces of confinement, and proved on dissection to be a 

 female. Heavy westerly gales had been blowing on that and the 

 previous day, which doubtless brought this American visitor in from 

 the Bristol Channel. I exhibited this specimen at the November 

 meeting of the British Ornithologists' Club, and note since then that 

 Mr. G. B. Corbin records another specimen from Hampshire, also in 

 October. A specimen was found in 1900 on the shores of the Menai 

 Straits, also in October, and of the six or seven previously recorded 

 British specimens, all of them of which the dates of captures have been 

 preserved have occurred in the month of October, beginning with 

 October, 1825. The species is migratory in the United States, like 

 our own Cuckoo is in Europe, and from the fact of all the British-taken 

 specimens occurring in the month of October, it is fairly evident they 

 are not escapes from confinement. They are doubtless wanderers 

 which have lost their way, or been blown out to sea during their 

 autumnal migration, and, by the help of westerly gales and possibly 

 assisted passages on the rigging of vessels, have been enabled to reach 

 these shores. They should, I think, therefore fairly claim a place on 

 the British list as " accidental visitors." — Robert H. Read (Bedford 

 Park, London, W.). 



