PICID.E. 485 



is the Editor with the greatest confidence refuses the White- 

 backed "Woodpecker a place even among the stragglers to 

 this country. 



The fourth and fifth claimants are from the New World, 

 and hence, according to the principle on which the present 

 Edition of this work is conducted, are from that cause alone 

 inadmissible here. But it may be convenient to state that 

 a pair of the former of them, the Hairy Woodpecker, 

 Dryobates* villosus, was said by Latham in 1787 (Syn. B. 

 Suppl. p. 108), to have been shot near Halifax in Yorkshire 

 by a Mr. Bolton, who was known to have made a collection 

 of North- American birds, and hence an opinion, very likely 

 just, arose t that instead of the English Halifax the capital 

 of Nova Scotia was meant. Be that as it may, there is no 

 doubt that a bird, said to have been killed near Whitby in 

 1849, as recorded by Mr. Higgins (Zool. 2496), proved to be 

 of this species (Zool. 25*27), while Mr. Bird states (/or. cit.) 

 that he believes another example was obtained in Worcester- 

 shire some years before. As to the other species, the Downy 

 Woodpecker, Dryobates pubcsccns, Mr. 0. Pickard-Cambridge 

 recorded (Zool. p. 6444) an example in his possession, as 

 having been killed at Bloxworth in Dorset, in December 1836. 

 It had long passed for a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker till its 

 very distinct characters were recognized by Mr. Bond, j 



A sixth exotic species is the Northern Three-toed Wood- 



* In deference to the practice of some of the excellent ornithologists of the 

 United States, the Editor uses this generic term ; but he must confess his 

 ignorance of the characters whereby it is separable from Dendrocopus. 



t Founded apparently on a statement made by Joseph Sabine to Fox, and 

 published by him in 1S27 (Syn. New;. Mus. p. 105). 



£ In regard to these examples of American Woodpeckers it may not be amiss 

 to quote the following passage from Walcott's ' British Birds 1 (i. p. 19) published 

 in 1789 : — "An old soldier I employed in the West of England, to procure me 

 birds for this work, on bringing me one of the spotted Woodpeckers, told me, he 

 was employed by a Captain Loclchart, in 1764, to take their young in holes in 

 Beaver trees, at Point Core, in West Florida : that they were put in cages, and 

 hung in the cabbin window of a ship, where some of them were fed by the old 

 ones, while the ship lay at anchor : the resi had large black annuls given them. 

 He added, that the above gentleman brought them to England, and turned 

 bhem loose in his park ; tiny were fed, dining tie passage, with eggs, and 

 crumbs of bread." 



