GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER IN SCOTLAND 7 



/ 



flock extending from Dornoch to the south shore of the 

 Dornoch Firth in Sept. 1868. 1 



It is evident, therefore, from Mr. Booth's notes, and also 

 from what is well known to naturalists, that mixed forests 

 of oak and other hard woods and pine are at the present 

 time the chosen haunt of the Great Spotted Woodpecker in 

 England, and also in Continental countries. Nowhere have 

 we ourselves found the Great Spotted Woodpecker, and closely 

 allied forms P. viedius and leuconotus, so abundant as in the 

 ancient oak-woods around Gorgeny St. Imry, in Transylvania, 

 or so scarce as in the belt of pine at 3000 feet in the same 

 country, or in the great pine forests of north-eastern Russia 

 and Norway. 



There still remain positive assertions of the presence of 

 the Great Spotted Woodpecker as a breeding species, but our 

 own personal opinion agrees with that of the majority, and 

 with the relations of the oldest inhabitant, that it has long 

 been extinct as a breeding species in the old pine woods. 1 

 Consensus of opinion holds that at least 50 years have 

 elapsed since the bird became extinct as a resident in the 

 pine woods of Speyside and Dulnain. But there are now 

 (1891) many people living, who clearly and accurately 

 remember them as common in certain districts. There is 

 abundance of evidence, patent to the sense of sight, that 

 their former abundance is as undoubted now as it was then : 

 the numerous borings, nesting holes, or " bos " are visible in 

 Speyside forests, as well as in other parts of the north of 

 Scotland, such as Guisachan, in Inverness-shire, where, how- 

 ever, on account of the great fires, few are now to be seen. 



Of late years there has been evidence of occasional 

 reappearance of the birds in their old haunts, and of their 

 lingering in them far on into their breeding season. Of their 

 occurrence in autumn and winter in droves, we have many 

 seasons' records. Indeed, all our own records since we began 

 to pay attention to the Vertebrate Fauna of Moray, relate 

 to autumnal migrations of the bird, except one, viz. — On 

 the 15th May 1884, the writer's mother, when driving 



1 Confusion exists in the name and identity of the bird, the Creeper [Certhia 

 familiaris) getting the name " Woodpecker" applied to it, usually by the younger 

 generation. We have always been careful about this matter. 



