ZOOLOGICAL NOTES 235 



added a footnote to the paragraph of Sir Archibald Buchan- 

 Hepburn's, recording the appearance of the Great Spotted Wood- 

 pecker (Dendrocopus major] in May, in which they looked upon its 

 occurrence as indicating an extension of its breeding range in 

 Scotland, and quoting also the fact of the bird being seen in 

 Dalmeny in June. I am glad to be able to give a definite instance 

 of its breeding beyond the confines of Duns Castle woods. My 

 informant does not wish his name to appear, but Mr. Eagle Clarke 

 is also in possession of the facts, and I feel privileged in being 

 allowed to make use of them. In the month of June it came to his 

 knowledge that a bird, whose description he immediately recognised, 

 was nesting in a secluded wood in Selkirkshire. He was taken to 

 the spot, and was delighted to have the opportunity of watching the 

 Great Spotted Woodpecker feeding its young. The nest was in a 

 silver birch, and the hole was bored below one of these fan-shape 

 fungus growths often met with in our woods. My informant lay 

 some time among the ferns watching the birds, and noted them 

 carrying away pellets of dirt in their bills, just as titmice do. 

 There is good reason for supposing that this is not the first season 

 the birds have nested in this wood, but it is satisfactory to be able 

 to record the present instance. CHARLES CAMPBELL, Dalmeny 

 Park. 



Great Spotted Woodpecker breeding in Midlothian. On 

 the 24th of June last, a Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopus 

 major\ which I have seen, was captured in a wood on the banks of 

 the Esk above Penicuik. It is a red-crowned young bird, and 

 although fully fledged, cannot have been many days out of the nest. 

 The bill is scarcely seven-eighths of an inch long, and the wing, 

 from the carpal joint, about 5^ inches. It was accompanied by 

 another bird, evidently one of its parents, which flew off uttering 

 anxious cries. WILLIAM EVANS, Edinburgh. 



Great Spotted Woodpecker nesting 1 in Midlothian. From in- 

 formation received from my brother, Dr. William Godfrey, Penicuik, 

 I am enabled to record the nesting of the Great Spotted Wood- 

 pecker in Penicuik policies during the present summer. On 24th 

 June Mr. Peter Robb, a young man who takes an interest in the 

 birds of the district, was passing through Corntown and saw two 

 woodpeckers running up the trees there. He threw his cap over 

 one of them and captured it, and he kept it alive till the next 

 afternoon. The bird was a young one, having some down still 

 showing on its back ; it had also the red crown characteristic of the 

 nestling Great Spotted Woodpecker. The bird has been stuffed, and 

 is now at Brunstane farm, in the possession of its captor. There 

 can be no doubt that the bird in question and the one that escaped 

 had been hatched in the Penicuik policies, and that they had quite 

 recently left the nest. The exact nesting-tree has not yet been 



