NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
215 
the green woodpecker, but stronger, About three weeks afterwards I saw a pair 
in Euston Park. I got over a hedge and trespassed, attracted by the extraordinary 
noise, bird like, and not unlike that of green woodpeckers, and yet very different. 
The sound was that made by a blacksmith’s hammer, but if possible more 
resonant. In this case I saw both birds going up a huge solitary oak, the hen 
having a greenish red crest only on the occiput, and nearly black or dirty black 
all over. The cock I did not see so clearly, but distinctly caught the flash of 
his red crest. I did not see either bird fly on this occasion ; they got away from 
the tree most mysteriously, and I next heard the clanging half laugh a long way 
oft', and I dared not trespass in search. 1 have absolutely no doubt of the identity 
of the species. It is well known that Lord Lilfoid liberated some birds towards 
the end of the nineties, and it may have been a pair of them. I know as well as 
Mr. the difficulties in the way of supposing a genuine wanderer from the 
Black Forest. As to the nutcracker, no one could mistake it who has once seen 
it. It is dark, but if mistaken for anything it would be for a jay. I have seen 
it in Norway, and I should describe its flight as jay-like, but stronger, and more 
resembling the wavering flight of the jackdaw. The note is like a policeman’s 
rattle, or sometimes a harsh gurgling ‘chough.’ Whatever C. saw, I am dead 
certain my vision was a black woodpecker and nothing else. I quite admit the 
difficulty of accounting for its presence here, knowing as I do the bird as an 
inhabitant of the darkest pine forests. I hope my account as above is clear ; 
but I do not expect to convince Mr. , or any one else. All I protest is that 
1 saw the black woodpecker twice, and I am quite sure. — Yours very truly, II.” 
The matter, then, stands thus. In July, 1897, II. sees a cock black wood- 
pecker at Ixworth, and a few weeks afterwards a cock and a hen at Euston Park, 
three or four miles off. This he reports to me, and I write to C. to look out. 
Nearly five years after this, that is, last April, C. writes to me reporting the 
occurrence of three birds at a spot the name of which I suppress. 1 hope they 
have reared some young this year, and that their numbers will increase. 
Market H'eston, Thetford, Ed.mund Thos. D.\ube.ny. 
September, 1902. 
A Foster-father. — Have any of your readers in their natural history- 
studies come across a case like the following ? A nest of young thrushes in this 
neighbourhood were left orphans, and curious to say, a cock robin took it upon 
himself to bring them up. Young thrushes are proverbially slow at feeding them- 
selves, and it was ridiculous to see these huge children expecting so much 
attention from their small foster-parent even after they had left the nest. 
Crofton Hall, Orpington, A. R. Francis. 
September 22, 1902. 
A Late-hatched Cuckoo and its Early Life. — We observed this 
young bird from July 25, when he was disturbed from a nest, to August 9. He 
was fine and well grown, but kept two servants to feed him, a whitethroat and a 
robin; the whitethroat was kept busy in the early morning bringing him green 
caterpillars and putting them into his mouth, and the robin also helped during the 
day. “ Great lazy thing,” was the remark of one of the village school-children 
who watched him, “it’s a shame.” He ate incessantly. One morning a cat 
appeared in the garden, and these devoted servants screamed and shrieked to 
warn him of his danger. The school-children had a good object-lesson, and our 
observation confirms that of Mr. Curtis, given in the September number of 
Nature Notes, as to the lateness of cuckoos’ broods this season. 
Longbritige, Deverill, Wilts., Kate Smith. 
September 7, 1902. 
Late Cuckoo. — A cuckoo haunted our garden for many days last week, and 
we saw him last on September 20. He was a young bird, with the conspicuous 
white patch on the back of the neck, and we frequently saw him eating the cater- 
pillars of the common white butterfly from off the cabbage leaves. 
Is not September 20 very late in the year for a cuckoo to be still in England I 
I may add the weather was fine and sunny. 
10, Stockleigh Road, St. Leonards-on-Sea, H. R. M. Beasley. 
September 2%, 1902. 
