NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
117- 
funny thing, that is a black green-woodpecker.’ I did not see the birds, being some 
■rlistance ahead, but I have very little doubt that the observation is correct. Morris 
says if there are three of these birds anywhere near each other, two of them are 
sure to hunt the third away, and this is exactly what these birds were doing. Dick 
did not know there were such things as black woodpeckers.” 
Names and places are suppressed. The black woodpecker is far too great 
n rarity for its whereabouts to become known to the pot-hunting world with any 
degree of safety. That it is to be seen in the Kastern Counties I am convinced ; 
and I intend shortly to make the journey to the place that it frequents. 
Market Weston, Thetford, EnsruNi) Thomas Daureny. 
April, 1902. 
Suet-eatera. — A friend who feeds the birds during the hard weather, hung 
up pieces of suet at the side of his porch last winter, to save them from starvation, 
lie sends me the following list of the birds that availed themselves of his kindness. 
The rooks and jackdaws robbed the other birds if they managed to carry a piece 
on to the lawn ; — 
Great-tit 
Hanging suet on porch. 
Blue-lit 
... ... )) )) 
Cole-tit 
... ... )) 
Marsh-tit 
... ... ) ) it ) 1 
Nuthatch 
... ... a )) 
Sparrow 
... ... )) )) 
Chaffinch 
... ... )) 
Robin 
... ... )) yt 
Thrush 
... ... a ii a 
... Feeding on fallen scraps. 
Hedge-sparrow 
Blackbird 
... ... j) a 
Missel-thrush 
... ... jy yy yy 
Pheasant 
... ... yy yy yy 
Pied-wagtail... 
... ... yy yy yy 
If he dared. 
Kook ... 
Jackdaw 
... ... yy y y 
Partridge 
M 
One of the reasons of the size and variety of this list was the absence of cats. 
Market Weston, Thetford, Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
April, 1902. 
Starling. — For two years in succession a pair of these amusing birds have 
selected the roof of this house as a suitable nesting-place, obtaining entrance 
through a broken or displaced slate near the chimney-stack. They have proved 
themselves most indefatigable nest-builders. Last year they persistently carried 
straws and rubbish into the hole in the roof, from the middle of, April to the first 
week in June, when they disappeared. This year they are again busy. 1 first 
noticed them conveying straws, &c., into the hole in the roof so early as March 3, 
and now (May 2) they are still building. I presume it is the same pair. They 
work principally in the evening, and frequently drop long straws in their passage 
to the nest. They could not have bred last year, as they were so busily occupied 
in constructing the nest as practically to take up the whole of the breeding 
season. What is the reason of such a queer proceeding ? 
Fyfield, near Abingdon. W. H. Warner. 
Early Nesting of Wild Duck. — While walking along the banks of the 
Cam, on April 27, a wild duck rose from some reeds which fringed the stream. 
My search for her was unattended with success, although, as the duck alighted 
■not twenty yards away, and was quacking uneasily, I felt sure that there must be a 
nest near at hand. I continued my search, and after a few minutes, on putting 
my hand under some sodden reeds, I felt something move and was surprised to 
find a “ flapper,” three or four days old. I, perhaps unwisely, brought it home, 
only to die of strangulation through its head becoming caught in a hole in its 
blanket : otherwise it would, I think, have lived, as it readily swallowed bread 
and milk. Was not this unusually early in the season for young wild ducks? 
The first egg must have been laid not later than March 25 — earlier if the number 
eggs was larger than ten. 
Ridley Hall, Cambridge. 
A. C. Mackie. 
