ORNITHOLOGY IN 1851. 
notice of the occurrence of certainly one of our rarest visitants, the 
Black Woodpecker ; and where the communicator, Mr. Mackintosh, 
Charminster, records the breeding of the bird in the hole of an old 
brick wall, at Claremont in Surrey. He mentions also having met 
with the birds at Cherborough Park in Dorsetshire ; and from these, 
with the notice referred to before, from the Zoologist, several in- 
stances of its occurrence have been added to those mentioned by 
Mr. Yarrell and others. A “ Fauna of Falmouth,” by W. P. Cocks, 
contains a list of the birds met with ; and an “ Ornithology of Lin- 
colnshire,” by the Rev. R. P. Allington, would be an acquisition, 
even yet, if more extended. No county in England has been more 
changed by drainage, and a good account of its fens and their in- 
habitants, as they existed forty or fifty years since, would be very 
interesting. The Waxwing still continues to be very frequently 
recorded, and seems on all occasions persecuted to the utmost. 
From the various notices in the present periodical and the Zoolo- 
gist, Thalassidroma leachii is the Petrel most commonly picked 
up, always dead or in an exhausted state. Plicenicura tiihys has 
been taken at Cullen in Banffshire. 
Zoological Society of London, August to December , 1851. Re- 
port of the Secretary. We have much pleasure in quoting the 
first sentence of the report. “ The progress of the Society’s affairs 
since my last report has heen continuously prosperous.” From our 
notice of the sale at Ivnowsley, it will have been seen that many very 
interesting additions were made to the aviaries of the Zoological 
Society ; but another was received, almost at the end of the season, 
of very great interest, that of the New Zealand Kiivi or Apteryx. 
It is thus noticed by the Secretary : “ Professor Owen has pre- 
sented this valuable bird to the Society, in the name of Lieutenant- 
Governor Eyre. This singular genus, of which three species are 
known, is strictly nocturnal in its habits; is utterly incapable of 
flight; has merely the rudiments of a wing; has diminutive eyes; 
very imperfect vision by day; and has its legs so far back, that 
when standing in any other than an erect position, it appears to be 
obliged to have recourse to its beak as an additional support The 
peculiar texture of its feathers, and the globular attitude in which 
it reposes, gives the Kiivi, at first sight, the air of some strange 
mammal rather than the aspect of a bird.” We shall look forward 
to some future details on its habits in confinement. 
