4 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



for in Scotland as reputed to have occurred or as likely to 

 occur in the country. 



Of the FOSSIL FORMS, in both Zoology and Botany, many 

 species remain to be discovered ; many to be better under- 

 stood through further investigation. 



NEW BOOKS will be noticed or reviewed when they deal 

 with the Natural History of Scotland, or are fitted to facilitate 

 its study, or are necessary and useful to naturalists. 



A short bibliography of CURRENT LITERATURE dealing 

 with the Zoology and Botany of Scotland will be given. To 

 render this as complete as possible the kind assistance of our 

 readers is requested. 



There now only remains the agreeable duty of offering 

 hearty thanks for the kindly support and goodwill so freely 

 shown by the naturalists of Scotland and England. Such 

 a response is our best encouragement, and augurs well for 

 the undertaking. 



THE GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER 

 (PICUS MAJOR, L.) IN SCOTLAND. 



By J. A. HARVIE-BROWN, F.R.S.E., F.Z.S. 



A TREATMENT of the phenomena connected with the dis- 

 appearance of this species seems to us naturally to be 

 divisible under several headings, viz. a consideration of the 

 old and young pine forests of Speyside ; the decrease and 

 almost extinction of the squirrel, followed by its rapid 

 resuscitation and enormous increase ; and the correlation 

 of these two sets of phenomena, and possibly of others in 

 a minor degree. 



This is a subject to which we have given some attention 

 before. 1 But we are still of the opinion that each of the 



1 "The History of the Squirrel in Great Britain" (Macfarlane and Erskine, 

 Edin., 1 88 1). Reprint from Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc. Ediii., vol. v. 1880. With 

 map of dispersal, etc. " On the Decrease of the Greater Spotted Woodpecker in 

 Scotland" (Zoologist, 1880, pp. 85-89). 



