254 "The Scottish Naturalist. 



and see," — and nimbly ascending, and placing his hand on the top 

 to get a firmer hold, an ominous click is heard, accompanied by 

 a violent scream. Up jumps No. 2, to discover that his friend is 

 firmly fixed in a trap, which, try ever so hard, obstinately refiises 

 to open, being double-springed. There is nothing for it but to 

 wait patiently and holloa for assistance. To be heard, however, 

 at some hundreds of feet above civilisation, is no easy matter. 

 The head-keeper, a good couple of miles distant, starts on his 

 morning rounds. Suddenly his attention is arrested by a distant 

 scream. Gazing upwards from whence the sound proceeds, a large 

 object is seen upon the pole, and he at once jumps to the con- 

 clusion he has caught a gigantic eagle, and rushing homewards 

 for the glass, attentively scans the rock, and soon discovers how 

 matters stand. A good half-hour's climb at last enables him to 

 reach the spot and liberate his quarry. This, it is to be hoped, 

 will be a caution to all tourists as well as Cuckoos. 



82. Picus MAJOR, Linn. (Great Spotted-Woodpecker.) 



So many instances have occurred of this bird having been 

 noticed in different parts of the district, that it seems quite 

 entitled to be included in this list. I have no notice of its 

 breeding,^ and these may only be foreigners which have reached 

 us from the Continent. The late Dr Saxby makes mention of 

 several large flights frequently reaching Shetland in the autumn 

 months, and many of these may strike different parts of the 

 coast, and so diffuse themselves through the country where best 

 suited to them. 



Gecinus viridis, Boie. (Green Woodpecker.) 



Mr Thomas Marshall, Stanley, in a recent letter to me, in- 

 forms me that he saw two of these birds in the woods opposite 

 Stanley some few years ago, and that they allowed him to approach 

 quite near, so that he could not mistake the species, and that he 

 watched their movements for some time with great interest. They 



^ Since writing the alcove, Mr Harvie-Brown has kindly sent me a notice of 

 his in the * Zoologist ' for March 1880, with regard to the decrease of the 

 Greater Spotted-Woodpecker in Scotland, in which he states "that there are 

 many accounts to be found of its former occurrence as a nesting species in 

 Scotland — more especially in the ancient forest of Rothiemurchus. " This 

 being so adjacent to the Tay district (should the Grampian range not have 

 been an insuperable bar), might not possil)ly the black wood of Rannoch (of 

 'similar character to that of Rothiemurchus) have been also a nesting-place in 

 former days ? 



