276 GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 



member of the family which regularly visits Heligoland in autumn ; 

 doubtless on its migration from Scandinavia, where it breeds up to 

 70" N. lat. In Russia it is common up to about 64° N. lat. ; and, 

 allowing for an increase in the extent or purity of white in its 

 plumage, this species can be traced to the Sea of Japan. Between 

 the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean other forms are observed, 

 which show in addition a tendency to develop a crimson band 

 on the breast — a coloration which reaches its highest point in 

 D. numidiciis of North Africa ; though Continental and even British 

 examples sometimes exhibit distinct signs of a red pectoral band. 

 In the Canaries our northern form occurs. 



The nesting-hole, smaller than that made by the preceding species, 

 is generally hacked out in a similar manner ; but, according to good 

 authorities, a natural cavity in a dead branch is sometimes prolonged 

 and utilized, and several holes are often cut out before the bird is 

 satisfied. The 6-7 eggs, laid on the bare wood about the middle of 

 May, are creamy-white in colour, and in shape rather less pyriform 

 than those of the Green Woodpecker : measurements "98 by 75 in. 

 Both sexes take part in incubation, which lasts about a fortnight. 

 It has been noticed in captivity that this bird descends by a series 

 of jerks with the tail downwards, but in the wild state the mode of 

 progression is usually diagonally or spirally upwards. The food 

 consists of insects and their larvae, but in autumn the berries of 

 the mountain-ash, nuts, acorns &c. are eaten. The note is a sharp 

 keek or gick, and sometimes a low, reiterated tra, but the male often 

 makes a loud vibrating noise by rapidly hammering with his bill on 

 the bark of a tree. 



The male has the upper parts chiefly black ; forehead dull white ; 

 cheeks and ear-coverts white : nape crimson ; scapulars white ; 

 wing-feathers barred with white on the outer webs; under parts dull 

 white ; vent crimson. Length 9-4 in. ; wing 5-5 in. The female is 

 slightly smaller and has no red on the head. The young of both 

 sexes have the crotvn of the head red. In ignorance of this fact, 

 a bird obtained in the Shetlands during the migration of 1861 

 was supposed by Saxby to be the Middle Spotted Woodpecker, 

 D. viedius, and was afterwards figured by Gould as the White 

 backed Woodpecker, D. kuconotus ; but it has been pronounced by 

 Prof. Newton and other authorities to be a slightly albescent 

 D. major ! 



An example of the American Hairy \Voodpecker, D. villosus, is 

 said to have been obtained in Yorkshire more than a century ago, 

 and another near Whitby in 1849. 



