274 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



finds plenty of food in the shape of ants and other insects. 

 Charles Waterton mentioned the fact of one roosting in one 

 of the galleries of a bird tower at Walton Park. 



The multiplicity of its vernacular names denotes that 

 the bird must have been numerous in former days, when it 

 was known as Wood Awl. It is alluded to, in the ballad of 

 " Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne," as Wood Weele ; and 

 Hayhoe, or Hewhole, in Willughby's " Ornithology," 1680. 

 Other names are Cut Bill ; Heffald (Scatcherd's " History of 

 Morley," 1830) ; Hefful (Craven) ; Yaffle (North Riding) ; 

 Yaffler (East Riding) ; Nickle [Zool. 1848) ; Popinjay, Rain 

 Pie, Rain Bird, Rain Fowl (Swainson) ; Wood Tapper, 

 Wood Borer, and Tree Climber (East Cleveland). 



GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 



Dendrocopus major (Z.). 



Resident ; local, thinly distributed, though more general than the 

 other Yorkshire species. Observed as an autumn migrant on the coast. 



Perhaps the first Yorkshire reference to this species is in 

 the Rev. J. Graves's " History of Cleveland " (1808), where 

 it is enumerated in the list of resident birds. 



Thomas Allis, 1844, wrote : — 



Picus major. — Great Spotted Woodpecker — Not uncommon near 

 Sheffield ; very rare near Leeds ; it occurs at Plompton Woods near 

 Harrogate ; is rare at Hebden Bridge ; not infrequent about Barns- 

 ley ; rare near Huddersfield, but a nest and eggs were presented to 

 W. Eddison a few years ago by Thos. Dunderdale, Esq., of Whitley 

 Hall, for the Huddersfield Museum. Arthur Strickland has met with 

 but one specimen which was from Boynton ; J. and W. Tuke inform 

 me that it is said to breed in the woods at Castle Howard. 



In addition to being a generally distributed bird in York- 

 shire, the Great Spotted Woodpecker is a spring and autumn 

 migrant, and is perhaps deemed to be scarcer than really is 

 the case, as, owing to its shy and retiring nature, its presence 

 may not always be suspected in the localities that it haunts. 



