SCOTTISH GREATER SPOTTED WOODPECKERS 217 



Sweden, and 138-142 mm. in East Prussia; the bill 

 being very thick, blunt, and comparatively short ; underside 

 " white, slightly tinged with buff in freshly moulted plumage, 

 and frequently stained." The real points of difference are 

 the wing measurement and the shape of the bill, the colour 

 of the under parts not being constant. 



Did, then, the material exist, i.e. had we a sufficient 

 series of specimens obtained in Scotland in the breeding sea- 

 son, there would apparently be no difficulty in deciding 

 whether our birds are of English or of Scandinavian origin. 

 But the Woodpecker is a protected bird in this country, and 

 very properly so, and I should be the last to do or say any- 

 thing that might lead to the destruction of a single pair. It 

 so happens, however, that three breeding birds recently 

 killed in the south-east of Scotland have come under my 

 notice, and, having made a careful examination of them, I 

 find all are clearly referable to the English race. The par- 

 ticulars are briefly these : A beautiful, and as would appear 

 from the condition of the reproductive organs breeding 

 male, killed near Ormiston, East Lothian, on iSth May last, 

 has a short wing (5.1 inches = 130 mm.) and the compara- 

 tively slender bill of D. m. anglicus ; and though the under 

 parts are whiter than usual and there is a narrow red pectoral 

 band, Dr. Hartert, who has seen the specimen, says it is un- 

 doubtedly one of the English race (in lit. 1 1 vi. '08). To 

 this race also belong a male and a female shot at their nest, 

 in which were four well-fledged young, a few miles from 

 Haddington, on i8th and i6th June 1903, respectively. 

 They differ from the Ormiston bird only in wanting the 

 pectoral band and being more buffy below. In both the 

 wing measurement is little more than five inches. I ex- 

 amined this pair and their brood a few days after they were 

 killed, and had a good look at them again a couple of months 



ago. 



The May 1908 bird is of further interest on account of 

 the well-defined pectoral band to which reference has been 

 made, no such specimen having, so far as I know, been pre- 

 viously recorded from the British Isles. Dr. Hartert, how- 

 ever, tells me he has examined several in Germany, includ- 

 ing the specimen erroneously referred by Altum to the 



