GREAT-SPOTTED WOODPECKEE. 289 



This induces me to suppose that they are migratory in 

 some of the more northern parts of Europe, perhaps in 

 Norway and Sweden. They arrive about the same 

 time as the woodcock and other equinoctial migrants, 

 and generally after stormy weather from the north and 

 north-east." There is no doubt that the same remarks 

 apply to Norfolk, since I find, on referring to my notes 

 for the last few years, that more than half the specimens 

 which have come under my notice have been killed in 

 the months of October and November, and for the most 

 part in the vicinity of the coast.* The strongest 

 evidence, however, of the migratory nature of this 

 woodpecker occurred in the severe winter of 1861 

 when, between the 5th of November and the following 

 February, between twenty and thirty specimens (old 

 and young) were killed in different parts of the county, 

 and some fourteen or fifteen of them in the neighbour- 

 hood of Lynn. About the same time an equally unusual 

 number ajDpeared in Cambridgeshire, as recorded in the 

 " Zoologist" (p. 7847) by Mr. S. P. Saville ; and Mr. 

 Henry L. Saxby, in the same journal (p. 7932), gives 

 a most interesting account of their visit to the Shetland 

 Isles during September and October of the same year, 

 a still more remarkable direction for any migratory 

 movement. The wind, says Mr. Saxby, was steadily 

 blowing from the south-east at the time, and he was 

 also informed that several were killed in Orkney. Of 

 those examined by himself he says — " Strange to say, 

 not one female was to be found among them, and, with 

 one single exception, all were first year's birds. The 

 first two presented nothing unusual in their appear- 

 ance, but on taking the third one into my hand, I at 



* The Eev. E. W. Dowell had a bird of this species brought to 

 him in the month of ISTovember, 1848, which had been taken in a 

 poacher's net, at Salthouse, close to the sea. 

 2p 



