342 
PICIDiE. 
was " very tame,” and was engaged pecking into a tree when fired 
at. It seemed to be unaccompanied by any of its species. 
Towards the end of the year 1845, four of these woodpeckers 
were obtained in different counties, ranging from north to south. 
One shot on the 29th of October at Carrick, the seat of Colonel 
Blacker, near Portadown, county of Armagh, was sent to Belfast 
to be preserved, and came under my inspection. This bird had 
almost attained perfect adult plumage, — a very few red feathers 
still remained on the top of the head, — but was in high moult, and, 
in the process of being skinned, so many feathers came out as to 
render it unfit to be set up. Mrs. Blacker informed me, that this 
woodpecker had kept about the old trees around the house at 
Carrick, for a month previous to being shot, — which was done 
contrary to orders, — and that the noise occasioned by its pecking 
was heard for some time before this was known to proceed from a 
bird. I have been told by T. W. Warren, Esq., of Dublin, that 
one was procured on the 15th of November, on the estate of the 
Hon. Somerset Maxwell, near Newtownbarry, county of Wexford; 
and that on the 6th of December, another (a female) was killed 
near Bagnalstown, county of Carlow : — they were seen by my 
informant in a fresh state. On the 17th of December, a beauti- 
ful specimen, shot the day before at Edenderry, near Belfast, by 
Houston Russell, Esq., was brought to me for examination. It 
exhibited precisely the markings shown in Yarrelhs figure. The 
only red appearing on the head, was in two small feathers tipped 
with that colour. This bird was in pen-feathers, but was fit to 
be set up : had it been killed a fortnight sooner, it would not have 
been so. On dissection, it proved a female, although red appeared 
in the plumage of the head; its stomach was entirely filled with 
the remains of one species of coleopterous insect, “ apparently an 
Hglurgus” (A. H. Haliday). On October the 20th, 1848, one 
of these woodpeckers was shot within three miles of the town 
of Wicklow.* 
I have little doubt that these birds, and the one obtained in 
1839, visited Ireland on their migratory movement southward, 
* Mr. T. W. Warren, 
