GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER IN SCOTLAND 9 



" disappeared in a single night." The last statement we may 

 dismiss as natural exaggeration, caused by an appeal to 

 memory only, of a remarkable and sudden occurrence. Of 

 the more modified concurrence of opinion, stating their dis- 

 appearance to have taken place comparatively suddenly and 

 about the year 1850, or 1851, there are more witnesses, and 

 we do not feel inclined altogether to dismiss it summarily. 



Regarding the more usual and wider statement that the 

 Woodpecker disappeared about forty to fifty years ago, we 

 can, I think, certainly accept it as fairly accurate, and say as 

 between 1841 and 1851 : dates which prove of sufficient 

 significance, if compared with the dates of destruction of old 

 wood, at least in Inverness-shire, of which we say more later 

 on, and which also offer a very fair concurrence with the 

 popular opinions given above. We have a statement of a 

 much later date for the Woodpecker actually breeding, within 

 twenty years back, relating to the nesting in the bole of a 

 birch tree, but as yet we have no corroboration, and prefer 

 for the present to withhold details, except that we believe 

 that the statement emanated from the same source as that 

 upon which the Rev. A. Forsyth built his belief. 



Of the trees usually occupied by the birds, these have for 

 the most part been found to be, if old, yet of moderate size, 

 the larger ones being too hopeless for the birds to attempt. 



This coincides with Lord Tweedmouth's experience, when 

 so many old " white " trees stood within a mile of Guisachan 

 House, previous to 1855 : and we may add also, it is borne 

 out by our own observations on Speyside. Sometimes, how- 

 ever, even a horizontally attached branch or limb maybe used, 

 as in the case of " The Burnt Firs," at Plodda, near Guisa- 

 chan, represented in Kilgour's sketch in a volume of original 

 sketches in the possession of Lord Tweedmouth. 



Just as statements differ as to the exact dates of the dis- 

 appearance of the bird, so do opinions differ as to the causes 

 of their decrease and disappearance ; and the primary purpose 

 of this paper is to take into consideration the whole pros 

 and cons of the subject, and to endeavour to cast as much 

 light upon the matter as the materials at our disposal enable 

 us to do. The almost universal popular belief that the 

 squirrel is the primary cause, has however to be received 



