GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER 



445 



exception of the hind portion of the abdomen, which is crimson, as 

 is a bar across the nape of the neck. Adult females lack all trace 

 of the crimson bar on the back of the head. On the other hand, in 

 young birds of both sexes the whole crown of the head is red. This 

 feature of young birds is a very remarkable one, and apparently 

 indicates that the species originally had a wholly crimson head at all 

 ages like that of the lesser spotted woodpecker, but that for some 

 reason such a type of colouring 

 was unsuitable, and the red in 

 the adult became reduced to a 

 band on the occiput of the cock. 

 As the red is evidently a special- 

 ised feature, we have thus evi- 

 dence of, first, the development, 

 and then the decadence of this 

 crimson skull-cap. 



Although a certain propor- 

 tion of the British representatives 

 of the species appear to reside 

 permanently in our islands, this 

 woodpecker is to a great extent 

 a migratory bird, and in some 

 seasons a large influx of strangers 

 takes place during the autumn 

 in the eastern and southern 

 counties. Ranging as far as the 

 Arctic Circle in Scandinavia, this 

 species extends eastward across 

 Europe and northern Asia to 

 Amurland, although replaced by 

 another member of the group 



in the Himalaya, while there are several local races in Asia. Through- 

 out the southern and midland counties of England the species may be 

 found breeding in suitable localities ; but both in Wales and the more 

 northern English counties it becomes scarce, and in Scotland it appears 

 to be chiefly known as a visitor during the winter-months at the present 

 day, although it is stated to have formerly bred in Aberdeenshire, Banff- 

 shire, and Inverness-shire. There are, however, records of its breeding 

 in the south of Scotland, ]\Iidlothian, and East Lothian in 190 1. In 

 some years considerable numbers of this species visit Caithness, Orkne)-, 

 and Shetland in the autumn and winter, and it has been recorded from 



GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 



