319 



THK CatKAT lil.ACIv \V()()I)]>1;( KER.* 



Mr. Gould thus describes the habits of the great black woodpecker : — We need hardly 

 say that it is on the bark of trees more exclusively that the woodpecker finds its Ibod, 

 and to this end arc its powers and organs adapted. If we examine the toes of the 

 present species, which are to be taken as illustrative of form in the whole of the fuaily 

 (with the exception of a single limited group), we find them long and powerful, furnished 

 \\ith strong claws, admirably adapted for grasping or clinging to the rough inequalities 

 of the bark ; besides this, they are placed in pairs, so as in some measure to antagonise ; 

 but not, as generally stated, two before and two behind, for one pair is lateral, and 

 diverges from the other at an acute angle, so as to be ap^jlied to the convexity of the tree, 

 and thus render the grasp firm and close. The tail is composed of stifi' feathers, the 

 shafts of which taper gradually from the base of the extremities, which, curving inward 

 when pressed against a tree, not oiily form a fulcrum lor the support of the body, but by 

 their elasticity aid the progress of the bird. This provision, the more needed from the 

 posterior situation of the legs, is admirably calculated for ascending ; and having 

 exjilored the bark by a spiral course, the woodpecker flies off to the next tree, to repeat 

 the same process. The flight of the present species is undulating, seldom protracted to 

 any extent, but limited to a transit from tree to tree in the seclusion of its native woods. 

 Its food consists of the larvie of wasps, bees, and other insects ; in addition, however, it 

 devours fruits, berries, and nuts with aviditj'. The female selects the hollows of old 

 trees, in which she deposits two or thr.ee eggs of a snowj' whiteness." 



Mr. Ilewitson saw this species in two instances only in Norway, and at a distance. 

 The birds were so wild that to approach them was impossible. The same observing 

 ornithologist saj'S, that on the wing the black woodpecker looks like a crow, and that 

 its notes resembles a loud hoarse laugh. 



Mr. Yarrell, in his interesting work on " British Birds," states, that the great 

 black woodpecker was added to the catalogue of the birds of Britain by Dr. Latliam, 

 who said that he had been informed that the species had occasionally been seen in 

 Devonshire and the southern parts of the kingdom. Mr. Yarrell refers also to Dr. 

 I'ulteney's catalogue of the Dorsetshire birds, where the great black woodpecker is 

 noticed as having been more than once killed in that country — one, in particular, is 

 said to have been shot in a nursery at Blandford, and another at Whitechurch ; and he 

 then quotes Montagu's supplement for the following passage, which to every one who 

 is aware of the great ornithological knowledge of the present Earl of Derby, will be 

 conclusive : — " I^ord Stanlej' assures us that he shot a Piciis Martins in Lancashire ; and 

 we have heard that another was shot, in the winter of 180-3, on the trunk of a tree in 

 Battersea Fields." Mr. Yarrell then goes on to st.ate that the specimen of the black 

 woodpecker, formerly in the collection of 3Ir. Donovan (who was well known to give 

 verj' high prices for rare British-killed birds, for his own use in his " History of British 

 Ornithology "), was afHrmed to have been shot in this country ; and at the sale of ilr. 

 Donovan's collection, this sjiecimon was purchased by the Earl of Derby, and is now at 

 Ivnowslej'. Mr. Yarrell further states that he had been told of two instances of the black 

 woodpecker having been killed in Yorkshire, and that it is also recorded to have been 

 killed in Lincolnshire. " A few years since," saj^s Mr. YarrcU in continuation, " a com- 

 munication was made to the Zoological Society of Ijondon, that two examples of the great 

 black woodpecker had been at that time killed in a small wood, near Scale Inn, in 

 Norfolk ; and, still more recentlv, a jiair were frequently seen in a small preserved wood 

 near Christchurch, in Hampshire. It was hoped that they would have remained to go to 



* Picus Mai'tius. 



