278 LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 



and Turkey, yet in other parts of the south it is either comparatively 

 rare or has been overlooked. There also it is to a considerable extent 

 a migrant, but in the Azores, strange to sa}', it is a resident. 



The nest-hole is often made in the highest branches of poplars 

 and other tall trees, but sometimes at very moderate elevations in 

 oaks, chestnut- and fruit-trees, hawthorns, or pollard willows. The 

 6-7 eggs, laid about the middle of May, resemble those of the 

 Wryneck ; but their texture is more ivory-like and their colour more 

 creamy-white, while they are slightly smaller: measurements 75 by 

 •57 in. The food consists almost entirely of timber-haunting 

 insects. The usual note is an often repeated keek, but the male 

 further produces a vibrating noise like that made by the preceding 

 species. In flight and general habits this bird hardly differs from 

 its congener, except perhaps in its extreme restlessness. 



The adult male has the forehead buff; crown of the head pale 

 crimson ; nape and lower cheek-stripe black ; cheeks white ; upper 

 parts black, broadly barred with white ; central tail-feathers black, 

 the rest black barred with white ; under parts buffish-white, with 

 black streaks on the flanks. Length 6 in. ; wing 37 in. In the female 

 the crown is whitish instead of crimson, and the under parts are 

 more striated. The young male has a crimson crown, as in the adult ; 

 but in the young female only the fore part of the head is red, 

 while the black and white chequerings of the back are less pure. 



The Rev. O. Pickard-Cambridge has a specimen of the North 

 American Uowny \\'oodpecker, D. pubescens, supposed to be a bird 

 which he shot at Bloxworth in Dorset, in December 1836; and an 

 example of this species has also been killed near Elbeuf, in Nor- 

 mandy : — American ' Spotted Woodpeckers ' are, however, known 

 to have been brought to Europe and turned loose more than a 

 century ago {Cf. Prof. Newton in 'Yarrell,' 4th Ed., ii. p. 485). 

 An American Golden-winged Woodpecker, Colaptes auratus, is said 

 to have been shot at Amesbury, Wilts, in 1836. As regards the 

 Black Woodpecker, Ficiis martins, Mr. J. H. Gurney and Prof. 

 Newton have, I think, conclusively shown that in the British 

 Islands there is not one of its numerous recorded occurrences 

 sufficiently authenticated ; while a bird undoubtedly shot in York- 

 shire on September 8th 1897, may be suspected of being one of 

 the individuals liberated by the late Lord Lilford. Donovan's 

 statement in 1809, that an example of the Three-toed Woodpecker, 

 Picdides iridactylus, had " lately" been shot in the North of Scotland 

 is unsubstantiated. 



