Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/52

26 the trunk of a large sycamore in our grounds at the front of the house. In size and colour it looked like a Crow, but its beak was longer, and I could not reconcile the Woodpecker habits to such a large and wellknown bird. We watched it for some time going round and round the trunk, picking, no doubt, its food from the crevices in the bark. At last it flew down upon the grass, and was lost to view among the shrubs. Being Sunday, I would not use my gun; otherwise I certainly would have endeavoured to secure a bird which I had never seen before. We have kept a sharp look-out since, but our new visitor has not appeared again. We have a large variety of birds in this county well known to us, but, as this is a decided stranger, I would be glad if any of your readers could give me its name. I may say that there was a keen frost at the time, and an adjoining meadow was nearly covered with ice." Strange to say, several of the previous reported occurrences of Picus martius have come from Herefordshire; and in the 'Birds of Breconshire,' by Mr. E. Cambridge Phillips, its appearance in that neighbouring county is recorded (Zool 1885, p. 305).— (Polefield, Prestwich, near Manchester).

Yellow-billed Cuckoo in Somerset.—On Oct. 6th, 1901, a bird of this species (Coccyzus americanus) was shot at Pylle, in Somerset, and forwarded to me for identification. It was in perfect new plumage, bearing no traces of confinement, and proved on dissection to be a female. Heavy westerly gales had been blowing on that and the previous day, which doubtless brought this American visitor in from the Bristol Channel. I exhibited this specimen at the November meeting of the British Ornithologists' Club, and note since then that Mr. G.B. Corbin records another specimen from Hampshire, also in October. A specimen was found in 1900 on the shores of the Menai Straits, also in October, and of the six or seven previously recorded British specimens, all of them of which the dates of captures have been preserved have occurred in the month of October, beginning with October, 1825. The species is migratory in the United States, like our own Cuckoo is in Europe, and from the fact of all the British-taken specimens occurring in the month of October, it is fairly evident they are not escapes from confinement. They are doubtless wanderers which have lost their way, or been blown out to sea during their autumnal migration, and, by the help of westerly gales and possibly assisted passages on the rigging of vessels, have been enabled to reach these shores. They should, I think, therefore fairly claim a place on the British list as "accidental visitors."— (Bedford Park, London, W.).