I have never met with this beautiful bird in a wild state, in Ireland, but have had the gratification of seeing it among the natural wood about the northern extremity of Loch Lomond, and about Coniston Water, in Lancashire. In October, 1847, I remarked jays to be noisy, but difficult to be seen, in some of the plantations, particularly of oak, about the neighbourhood of Tunbridge Wells. I was sorry to observe numbers of them nailed to the gable wall of a barn of Mr. Waldo's, near Hever, along with magpies, crows, and four-footed vermin. The jay has come under my notice in Switzerland and Italy; in the latter country, on the richly wooded banks of the Nera, not far from its confluence with the Tiber.

THE NUTCRACKER (Nucifraga Caryocatactes, Briss.,) cannot be announced with any certainty as having been met with in Ireland. The late Mr. Templeton's MS. contains a note that one "had been shot at Silvermines, county of Tipperary, by Mr. J. Lewis." Unfortunately, no more information is given. This bird is a rare visitant to England and Scotland.

THE GREATER SPOTTED WOODPECKER.

Picus major, Linn.

Has in very few instances been noticed.

TEMPLETON records one obtained in August, 1802, in the county of Londonderry, having been sent to Dr. M'Donnell of Belfast; and a second having been met with since :-of the former, a beautifully coloured drawing made by Mr. Templeton is in the possession of his family. A specimen which I saw in the museum of the Royal Dublin Society in 1834, was stated to have been killed on the banks of the canal near the metropolis in December, 1831; another was seen in company with it. About the same year a P. major was procured at St. Johnstown, county of Tipperary.* In the autumn of 1835, one was killed near Drumcliff, county of Sligo.† On Nov. 13th, 1839, a male bird of this species,—but not in adult plumage,—was shot at Castlereagh, near Belfast, by Mr. Greenfield, and liberally presented to the Belfast Museum.

It

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 beautiful 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 Yarrell's 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 Hylurgus" (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,

like those noticed by Mr. Selby as frequently occurring in the months of October and November, in Northumberland :-at which period also, the few individuals known by Sir Wm. Jardine to have been obtained in the counties of Dumfries and Roxburgh, were met with. Mr. Selby has seen this species on the banks of the Dee and Spey, but it seems to be known in Scotland, as in Ireland, merely as an accidental visitant. In some parts of England it is resident, especially in "the southern and midland counties" (Yarrell). I have met with the Picus major in its native haunts, only in the richly wooded and picturesque valley of Sarnen, Switzerland.

Smith, in his History of Cork, remarks under "Hoopoe," "Mr. Willoughby ranks it among the woodpeckers, of which I have not yet seen one in this county." In the same author's History of Waterford, there appears "Picus Martis, the woodpecker, a bird rare in this county:" can P. martius be meant? Rutty enumerates the "Picus varius minor, lesser spotted woodpecker," as one of the birds of the county of Dublin; and it likewise appears in Dr. Patrick Browne's Catalogue of the Birds of Ireland, probably copied from Rutty. All these notices of woodpeckers are very unsatisfactory. Picus major is the only species that can be positively announced as Irish.

THE GREAT BLACK WOODPECKER (Picus martius) is reported as a very rare visitant to England. It was noticed by Sibbald among the Birds of Scotland, but nothing else is known of the species in that country.

THE GREEN WOODPECKER (Picus viridis), which is common to the wooded districts of England, is not found in Scotland (Jard.: Macgil.). I have been told that it frequents an old wood in the county of Donegal, but no proof was ever afforded. When in Dublin on the 1st of Feb., 1835, I saw in the possession of a bird-preserver, a fresh example of this species, which was accordingly believed to have been shot in Ireland; but on inquiry from the owner, I learned that it had been sent to him from England; its stomach was entirely filled with ants. Other recent specimens have been received by bird-preservers in Dublin, but no satisfactory statement respecting the place where they were killed, could be procured.

THE LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER (Picus minor) is found from Yorkshire southward in England (Yarr.), but is not known in Scotland.

THE WRYNECK (Yunx Torquilla, Linn.). There is no record of this species having ever been met with in Ireland. It is chiefly found in the south-eastern counties of England, but also visits the western and northern. It has rarely been seen in Scotland. On the 29th of April, 1841, I saw one among some shrubby plants in the island of Sphacteria, which bounds the western side of the fine bay of Navarino. On the 25th of the same month, a wryneck, which alighted in H.M.S. Beacon, when about sixty miles to the south-east of Calabria, was captured.

THE NUTHATCH (Sitta europaea) sent to a bird-preserver in the metropolis, was, on the same presumptive evidence as the green woodpecker, mentioned to me as an Irish bird; but on inquiry it was found to have been killed in Wales. This species is not known to have ever visited Ireland; it is said to be pretty generally distributed in England; but not to be found in Scotland. (Jard.: Macgil.)

THE TREE CREEPER.

Certhia familiaris, Linn.

Inhabits districts generally throughout Ireland in which old wood prevails, and is everywhere resident.

OWING to its habits, this is perhaps of all our native birds the least known. To the ornithologist it is particularly interesting, from being the only one of the zogodactyle birds indigenous to the island; its presence, too, throughout the winter is an additional attraction. In the woods of the counties of Down, Antrim, and Fermanagh, this bird has occurred to me. It is found in the north of the county of Donegal; † about Dublin and Youghal; ‡ is common in some parts of Westmeath, and about Killaloe; || in Tipperary; § and in Kerry.¶ Mr. Poole remarks that the creeper

* Here I have seen this bird close to the house at Florence Court; and a friend living near Belfast has observed it creeping up the yard-wall attached to his dwellinghouse. There is in reality nothing remarkable in such cases: they are mentioned, as some persons imagine that the creeper never leaves the depth of woods.

is not uncommon in the wooded parts of the county of Wexford, adding, that "in climbing, it presses its tail very closely against the trees, so that it looks like a moving excrescence of the bark."

Such of these birds as have come under my observation, though apparently aware of my presence, never exhibited any shyness, but admitted of a near approach, when it was extremely interesting to observe the regular, quick, and business-like manner in which they searched for their food. Now one would appear moving in a straight line up the trunks of the largest pines, from near the base until attaining the summit; then would be seen ascending the next tree, by spirally winding round it, the effect being much heightened by its breast appearing of a silvery whiteness, in contrast with the dark-coloured bark. I was once amused in Colin Glen by observing two of these birds for a long time advancing through the plantation and evidently considering themselves companions, though they were never nearer to each other than the stems of neighbouring trees. Each left its tree about the same moment to fly onwards to another, so that both were to be seen at one view, scanning the bark of a tree on either hand, beginning at the bottom and ascending in the usual

manner.

Mr. R. Ball has "known the creeper to be captured by boys getting to the opposite side of a tree at the base of which it commenced feeding, and making a random stroke with a cap or hat, at the place they supposed it had reached in its upward movement." On the 4th of June, 1842, Mr. Thomas Garrett brought me a specimen of the creeper which he had just killed with a stone at Cultra, near Belfast. He remarked, that on being alarmed by a stone striking the tree near to it, the bird clings closely to the bark and remains motionless as if dead, not flying off until the hand is all but laid upon it. He, to-day, found a nest of young creepers at this locality, built in an old spout. In the stomach of the specimen, I found the remains of insects, and the husk of a pine seed, thus proving, that in summer,—and the weather has been remarkably fine and warm for some time,-vegetable food is taken. This species is generally stated by authors to