BIRDS 167 



GREEN WOODPECKER. 



Gecinus viridis (L. ). 



Dr. Heysham knew this bird as common in Yorkshire, but 

 only an occasional visitant to Cumberland.. Hutton's Museum 

 in 1803 contained a local specimen. The late Mr. Dickinson has 

 left a graphic description of two Green Woodpeckers which he 

 observed near Lamplugh, the only specimens he ever saw. 1 

 Mr. M'Comish of Stranraer took a clutch of eggs in Blackwell 

 Wood near Carlisle in 1840. R. Raine assured me that a pair 

 nested at Edenhall in 1887. In Westmorland it appears to be 

 of still more rare occurrence. Mr. Leslie showed me a Green 

 Woodpecker in nest dress, shot near Appleby shortly prior to 

 1882. This is the best authenticated specimen that can be 

 claimed for Westmorland. 



Subfam. IYNGINjE. 

 WRYNECK. 



lynx torquilla, L. 



The Wryneck affords an interesting example of the nearly 

 complete disappearance of a regular summer visitant to Lake- 

 land within the memory of a single generation. Dr. Heysham 

 knew the species well, was familiar with its harsh cry, had taken 

 a female on the nest, and was accustomed to meet with it every 

 season, though he did not happen to find it in 1796. T. C. 

 Heysham noticed its arrival at Carlisle in the 'thirties' regularly. 

 Dr. Gough entered it in 1861 as a not uncommon summer visit- 

 ant to the neighbourhood of Kendal. Captain Johnson well 

 remembers that it used to breed about Castlesteads. For the 

 last twenty-five years the Wryneck has only visited us as a 

 chance straggler. James Fell took a nest at Rickerby in 1863, 

 of which he often spoke, but he never met with it after that 

 year. An odd bird was killed by a boy's catapult near Mary- 

 port in August 1888; a few individuals have been seen on 

 passage in different parts of Lakeland. Probably the species 

 was always very local. It is now rare. 



1 Rem. of West Cumberland, pp. 23, 24. 



