104 
THE BIRDS OF HAMPSHIRE. 
YKmiN—Picid^. Sub-Family— P/W;?^^. 
[Genus— 
PicMS martins. Great Black Woodpecker. 
Though this bird has been several times reported as 
seen in the county, usually in the New Forest district, and 
is so remarkable in appearance that it could scarcely be 
mistaken for any other, we think it cannot be admitted as 
a genuine visitor on the strength of the evidence at present 
existing. 
The oldest record is that communicated by Bury to the 
" Zoologist" in 1845, to the effect that Archdeacon Hill had 
shot one in his garden at Shanklin Parsonage " many years 
before," but it was identified only from memory, and both 
More and Hadfield thought the evidence insufficient. 
Former editions of Yarrell mentioned a report that two 
were frequently seen near Christchurch, but this record was 
rejected by the editor of the fourth edition. 
Wise gives a circumstantial account of the discovery of 
a nest in Pignel Wood, near Brockenhurst, by William 
Farren in 1862, but the evidence was not considered con- 
clusive by Mr. Gurney and Mr. Howard Saunders when 
they investigated the matter ; the latter saw the eggs and 
thought they were green woodpecker's, and also conversed 
with a Mr. Oliver, who was with Farren at the time. 
Mr. G. A. B. Dewar writes in his " Hampshire High- 
lands " (1899) that " among his non-proven records is one 
relating to no less a bird than the great black woodpecker." 
" A keeper whom I questioned some twenty years since 
respecting uncommon birds he had come across during my 
absence from home for some months, gave me an account 
