. The birds of Berkshire and Buckinghamshire : a contribution to the natural history of the two counties . an, at Iver Court, nearLangley, in Buckinghamshire. Tr/^^—SCANSORES. Family— Great Black Woodpecker {Piais martitis). InApril, 1844, a Great Black Woodpecker was seen onseveral consecutive days in the Home Park, observer in this case was a Mr. Walter, whoseword I have no reason to doubt, and, moreover, hegave so accurate a description of the bird, as to leaveno room for doubt that it was a veritable Picusmartius. Improbable as it may appear to scepticalornithologists,
. The birds of Berkshire and Buckinghamshire : a contribution to the natural history of the two counties . an, at Iver Court, nearLangley, in Buckinghamshire. Tr/^^—SCANSORES. Family— Great Black Woodpecker {Piais martitis). InApril, 1844, a Great Black Woodpecker was seen onseveral consecutive days in the Home Park, observer in this case was a Mr. Walter, whoseword I have no reason to doubt, and, moreover, hegave so accurate a description of the bird, as to leaveno room for doubt that it was a veritable Picusmartius. Improbable as it may appear to scepticalornithologists, I feel further justified in including thisspecies in the present catalogue from my own personalobservation. In March, 1867, while walking undersome elms in Ditton Park, I saw a Great BlackWoodpecker busily engaged on one of the tallest treeswithin a short distance of me. I was sufficientlynear to identify the bird with certainty, and had anopportunity of observing its movements for the spaceof half a minute, when it flew off with an undulatingflight to a considerable distance, and was seen THE epopi^. UPUPA. 179 Genus—UruPA. Hoopoe {Upupa epops). This very curious birdhas occasionally been killed in both counties. It isa summer visitor of uncertain and rare occurrencefrom warmer climes. One was caught alive near Eton some six or sevenyears since, and became so tame that it would run upits masters legs and come at his call. This interest-ing bird was offered to the Zoological Society, butfor unexplained reasons they did not take it. Itdied about two years afterwards. Mr. Gould toldme of another which was shot by a man well knownat that time as Shampoe Carter, in a large open fieldnear the Eton Wick public-house ; it was brought tohim, and he says that it was one of the first birds heever preserved : this was forty years ago. Mr. killed a good plumaged bird in the autumnof 1864, in a brick-field opposite the Spital barracks,and he once observe
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