96 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



in oak-galls. Once or twice she was seen flying with one in her 

 beak, and in one instance holding a twig several inches long, 

 which she had just picked with the oak-gall attached to it, and 

 which she afterwards dropped at my feet. Most of the galls on 

 the ground had been halved very neatly, and, as some which I 

 obtained for examination contained as many as six little white 

 grubs, they were worth the trouble of opening. 



23rd. — Wood-Pigeons arriving in swarms at Taverham, where 

 there are extensive coverts (E. F. Penn), and a large increase 

 noted at Keswick and other places ; but of this more sub- 

 sequently. Between the 17th and 27th Waxwings were reported 

 from Lowestoft, Yarmouth, Filby, Burgh Castle, Hickling, Side- 

 strand, Cromer, and Sheringham ; but the flight must have 

 rapidly passed on, and does not seem to have been followed by 

 others. By the end of the month they had got to Newmarket 

 (W. Howlett). 



December. 



4th. — Only one Spotted Woodpecker at Keswick now, but 

 that remains constant to the same two fir-trees, which it is 

 gradually stripping. There are at the present time three or four 

 hundred Scotch fir-cones on the ground, all dropped by the 

 Woodpecker, and nearly all from the same dead bough. Besides 

 this, about twenty are jammed into the trunk of the tree, which, 

 being a stone-pine, has interstices in the bark large enough to 

 receive them. Although the Nuthatch does the same with nuts 

 and seeds, I never detected it in Picus major before. In my last 

 year's "Norfolk Notes " a description was given of a knob as big 

 as a pea on the lower mandible of the nestling Green Wood- 

 pecker. I have since ascertained that the Greater Spotted 

 Woodpecker also has this peculiar growth, but less developed, 

 and it has also been detected by Mr. H. Noble in Gecinus sharpii; 

 but what its object can be is difficult to divine. P. major is not 

 an uncommon bird in Norfolk, and anyone may hear its rapid 

 hammering, which is loudest in the spring, taking the place of 

 the vocal love-song in other birds. It is much more seldom to be 

 seen upon the ground than the Green Woodpecker, and is more 

 of a fruit-eater, but does not feed on ants. I once had a nest in 

 a plum-tree in my kitchen-garden, well within reach of the 

 hand ; another nest was in an alder, and a third one in a birch, 



