NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 127
BIRDS.
Great Spotted Woodpecker at Fowlness with
Notes on the Natural History of the Island. — On
September 26th, 1903, I received by post from Mr. Matthams, of
Fowlness, a specimen of the Great Spotted Woodpecker
(Dendrocopus major), which had been shot on the island. It was
a bird of the year, but unfortunately it was too stale for preserva-
tion. Mr. Matthams informs me that in default of a tree it was
overhauling a linen-post, and he believes it was a "foreigner."
This is probably true, as September is the season for the autum
migration. The letter containing this information is so full of
interest that I propose to make some further quotations from it.
He says that Fowlness is a landing-place for a number of birds,
a statement I can fully corroborate, as I have never seen, in a
day, so many hawks, large and small, as I have observed at this
time of the year in that island. Mr. Matthams says also that in
October of late years there have been, in addition to many
other birds, large numbers of crows and rooks arriving,
accompanied by an abundance of jackdaws. There are generally
said to be French, but, wherever they come from, the numbers
passing over in a day may be reckoned by hundreds. Some few
years ago they had to fly against a very strong north wind, and
several were seen to drop in the water, only a few hundred yards
from land. Referring to the high tide of a few years ago, which
flooded so much marsh land in Essex and Kent, Mr. Matthams
informs me the land is slowly coming round now, and that he
should have had a very fair crop this year had he not been
pestered with wire-worms. They cleared the crops on some
marshes right off. He sowed one marsh with oats again, but
the wire-worms destroyed that crop also, and he expresses his
surprise that the flooding with salt water did not destroy all such
life. But these are not the only vermin that have been trouble-
some; for the second and third year after the flood the land
swarmed with "sow-bugs," as they call woodlice there. Where
they came from was a puzzle. On reading these remarks, I
think it will be felt that it is much to be regretted there are not
more of such intelligent observers throughout the country. I
know I felt the want very much when compiling my list of the
fish, etc., of Essex, and I hope Mr. Matthams may long be able
to observe and report other interesting matters occurring in his