GREAT BLACK WOODPECKER. 79 



Length to end of tail 19 inches ; bill along the ridge 2^%, 

 along the edge of lower mandible 2f ; wing from flexure 9^ ; 

 tail 7i ; tarsus 1 fV ; first toe ^^, its claw j% ; second toe ^^|, its 

 ,claw {I ; third toe {^, its claw j^ ; fourth toe {§, its claw l^. 



Female. — The female is scarcely smaller, with the plumage 

 more tinged with brown, and only a small crimson patch on 

 the occiput. 



Length to end of tail 18^ inches ; bill along the ridge 2^%, 

 along the edge of lower mandible S^^^ ; wing from flexure 9^ ; 

 tail 7t^j. 



Habits. — This species has been met with so seldom in Bri- 

 tain, that nothing has been recorded of its manners as observed 

 there. M. Temminck states that it " inhabits the north of 

 Europe, extending to Siberia ; is less abundant in the great 

 mountain forests of Germany and France ; feeds on perforating 

 larvae, bees, w^asps, ants, and caterpillars ; and when these fail, 

 on nuts, seeds, and berries ; nestles in the holes which it bores, 

 as well as in the natural hollows of trees ; and lays three eggs, 

 of a shining white." It is said to frequent the pine forests of 

 the Swiss and Tyrolese Alps, and to extend as far as Asia 

 Minor. 



Dr Latham informs us that it has been sometimes met with 

 in Devonshire ; Dr Pulteney, that two or three specimens have 

 been shot in Dorsetshire ; Lord Stanley is said to have shot 

 one in Lancashire ; and another is reported to have been killed 

 in Battersea Fields, in 1805. Mr Yarrell states that he has 

 been told of two instances of its having been killed in York- 

 shire, and mentions its occurrence in Lincolnshire, Norfolk, 

 and Hampshire. Although Sir Robert Sibbald includes it 

 among the birds of Scotland, it has not been obtained in that 

 country for many years. The above descriptions are taken 

 from two specimens in my collection, a male and a female, 

 which I purchased from Dr Madden, to whom they had been 

 sent by their owner, as having been shot near Nottingham. 

 That gentleman afterwards obtained for me a certification of 

 the fact by the person who had procured them. 



