BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
a difference of two years between the dates, this entry 
may very possibly refer to the specimen recorded m 
1857. As regards the aUeged Jardine HaU occurrence, 
Dr Grierson probably mistook the locality, for in a MS. 
note in his private copy of the Naturalist's Library, Sir 
WiUiam Jardine has written : " On November 3rd, 1859, 
I saw a specimen on the road between Annan and North- 
field when returning from an Income Tax Appeal Meeting. 
It was in the hedge, but on my coming up ahghted upon 
the grass at a gateway, moving its body backwards and 
forwards. It again flew onwards, aUghting in the hedge. 
On February 17th, 1874, Mr. Hastings exhibited a 
stuffed specimen of the Wryneck recently shot at Holy- 
wood "* to the members of the Dumfriesshire andGaUoway 
Natural History and Antiquarian Society. 
To England this species is a regular summer-visitant, 
arriving at or about the same time as the Cuckoo, thus 
earning its sobriquet of "Cuckoo's Mate" or "Cuckoos 
Leader " In September it emigrates to its winter-quarters 
in Africa, as far south as Kordofan in the east, and Sene- 
gambia in the west. 
THE GREEN WOODPECKER. 
Gecinus viridis (Linnaeus). 
A very rare accidental visitor. 
WiUiam Hastings records a specimen obtained locally, 
in November, 1885, " quite fresh and newly kiUed,"t about 
which I have not been able to find out anything more. In 
1886, when I was a small boy, an old bird-stuffer named 
Robert Brown, who lived in Penpont, gave me a bird of this 
species. I can still distinctly remember his teUing me it had 
* Minutes of D. and G. Nat. Hist. Soc, February 17th, 1874. 
t Trans. D. and G. Nat. Hist. Soc, December 4th, 1886. 
