PIED WOODPECKER. 83 



^^ ; second toe /g, its claw /^ ; third toe ^^, its claw ^^ ; 

 fourth toe /j, its claw ■{^, 



Female. — The female, which is slightly smaller, has the 

 colours distributed in the same manner ; but the red on the 

 occiput is wanting, the whole upper part of the head being 

 glossy bluish-black, excepting the white band on the forehead. 



Length to end of tail 9^ inches ; extent of wings 16^ ; tail 

 S{§ ; wing from flexure 5| ; bill along the ridge l^'^^ along 

 the edge of lower mandible l/g ; tarsus \l ; fourth toe 1\ 

 horny part of the tip of the tongue ^. 



4 •) 



Vakiations. — I have not met with any remarkable variations 

 in adult specimens, beyond a little difference in the number of 

 white spots on the quills, and black bands on the lateral tail- 

 feathers. The lower parts are often much soiled by matters 

 rubbed from the trees. 



Habits. — The Pied or Greater Spotted Woodpecker is ex- 

 tensively distributed in England and Scotland ; but in all 

 parts is rare, although specimens are not very unfrequently ob- 

 tained. It is a permanent resident, and has been found breed- 

 ing in various districts. The most northern tracts in which it 

 is met with, are the neighbourhood of Loch Ness, whence I 

 obtained the female described above, in January 1834 ; the 

 extensive fir woods on the Spey, from a specimen shot in 

 which, in October 1836, I have taken my description of the 

 male ; and those in Braemar, In all these tracts it is not 

 extremely unfrequent ; but in other parts of Scotland it is very 

 rarely met with. In England it has been found from the 

 northern counties to those bordering the channel, and is more 

 common than in Scotland, although less numerous than the 

 Green Woodpecker. Its food consists of larvae and insects of 

 various kinds. The stomach of one killed in January I found 

 filled with small white worms, some of them three-fourths of 

 an inch long, and a line and a half in breadth, while others 

 were scarcely an eighth of an inch in length. Its habits are 

 similar to those of Picus pubescens, P. villosus, and the other 

 variegated Woodpeckers of North America ; its flight being 



