BIRDS. 



163 



an " elderly gentleman " (whom I believe to have been Col. Drummond 

 Hay, and I think Mr. Evans was of the same opinion). I saw Mr. 

 Dewar in the summer of 1905, and have the fact from his repeated 

 assurance. 



As long ago as Don's records, he includes the Green Woodpecker 

 in his list; but while adding no further remarks as to it, he also 

 includes, with no remarks, Picus medius— Middle Spotted Wood- 

 pecker" and Ficus minor — Lesser Spotted Woodpecker." This 

 makes his note valueless for exact purposes. 



I may mention here that I have heard the weird strange laughter 

 of the Green Woodpecker many times in Cambridgeshire, in Devon- 

 shire, in Norway, and in Transylvania, and twice to the best of my 

 belief in Scotland, once in Clyde and once in Forth. On the former 

 occasion I was standing at the front door of Arden House — the home 

 of my friend Mr. James Lumsden — on the west shore of Loch Lomond, 

 in the early morning, when the well-remembered notes were heard, as 

 a bird in flight passed overhead, flying from east to west. I vainly 

 tried to catch sight of it, but interlacing branches of high beech- 

 trees intercepted my vision. I heard it continue to call as it flew 

 onwards for some time. 



On the second occasion I was accompanied by Mr. Eagle Clarke 

 and Mr. John Cordeaux, and we heard what Cordeaux first recog- 

 nised, and I afterwards was convinced, was the distant but loud 

 laugh of the bird, so like to my mind the uncanny shrieking laughter 

 of some insane child. I felt convinced in my own mind, but one 

 of our party, with characteristic caution, afterwards placed it amongst 

 the "evidence of things not seen." For my part, I am inclined to 

 think that one's education of many previous experiences warrants me 

 in a strict adhesion to Mr. Cordeaux's prompt recognition and my 

 own subsequent acknowledgment of that. I think I might as easily 

 mistake the ''clarion crow of a Midden Cock" — unless admirably 

 imitated by some whistling boy — for what it was not. But to show 

 that mistakes may occur in the best regulated minds, I will frankly 

 admit that once I was suddenly awakened by a cuckoo clock striking 

 "one," and it was not until later in the day that I realised that it 

 could scarcely be a Cuckoo — and a March Cuckoo too ! It was break- 

 fast-time, when the "beast" struck nine, crying nine times in succession, 

 which I cannot recollect having heard any other Cuckoo do ! 



I am not, however, forgetting the early statement by Yarrell, who 

 spoke of the Green Woodpecker as "well known in the wooded 

 districts of England and Scotland " {British Birds, 1st edition, vol. ii. 



