GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER IN SCOTLAND 5 



headings treated of is, and are, collectively, worthy of the 

 attention of Scottish Naturalists, with a view to greater 

 elaboration of details in each, and in all. 



The Woodpecker. — Perhaps the oldest record of the 

 presence of Woodpeckers in Scotland referred to quite 

 another species, viz. the Green Woodpecker (Gecinus viridzs), 

 and at a period when oak forests flourished even to the north 

 of the mainland. It has thus been recorded — and the record 

 has become stale from frequent quotation, but must serve 

 its turn again — by Sir Robert Gordon in " The History of the 

 Earldom of Sutherland," 1630, and in which he speaks of 

 the " lairigigh or knag (which is a foull lyk unto a paroket or 

 parret, and makes place for her nest, with her beck in the 

 oak trie.") 



Although specimens of the Green Woodpecker have not 

 lately been recorded and added to our list of Scottish birds 

 there is strong evidence to show that it does occasionally 

 occur in autumn. One bright morning in August 1887, 

 whilst standing at the front of Arden House, Dumbarton- 

 shire, I heard what could scarcely be aught else than the 

 cry of the Green Woodpecker. On another occasion the 

 cry was recognised by Mr. John Cordeaux, during a walk 

 to the Tor and old Castle of Torwood, Stirlingshire, on 29th 

 September 1889. The records given by Mr. Robert Gray 

 in his "Birds of the West of Scotland" (pp. 189, 190), 

 appear for the most part reliable. 



Selby met with the Great Spotted Woodpecker on the 

 banks of the river Spey, and amid the wild scenery of the 

 Dee, in 1833, or at least recorded the fact in that year. And 

 MacGillivray described birds obtained north of Loch Ness 

 and from Braemar ; but whilst speaking of the distribution, 

 does not make it distinctly clear whether he refers to it in 

 summer or winter or both, nor for that part does Selby. 

 MacGillivray wrote in 1840, and the birds he describes were 

 shot in January 1834 and October 1836. But he records 

 it as " resident in the woods [of Dee] ' ; it occurs but very 

 rarely in all parts of the district, from Banchory to Glen Lui. 

 In Mar Forest and the Invercauld woods, it is less frequent 

 than it was some years ago " (" The Nat. History of Dceside," 



1855, p. 395)- 



