In the Neighbourhood of Salisbury. 305 



its food, and for licking up the ants and eggs from the ant-hills, 

 which is their favorite diet. The young birds of the year are 

 curiously mottled and speckled, very different from the old birds, 

 and I once saw a very curious pair, which were mottled all over with 

 flakes of yellowish-white, which gave them a curious piebald appear- 

 ance, but they do not generally vary much in their plumage. 



Picus Major. " The Great Spotted Woodpecker." This is, cer- 

 tainly the most uncommon of the three varieties of Woodpeckers 

 that are generally seen in England. I have only seen them two or 

 three times since I have been in these parts — on one occasion being 

 startled by its clear single note, which, being quite an unusual sound 

 to me, made me at once look up, when I saw one of these birds 

 flying directly over my head in the direction of Longford Park. A 

 pair used to breed regularly just outside the park, in the village of 

 Bodenham, but they have not been noticed there lately, I believe ; 

 and at Hurdcott their nests are always to be found in the woods, 

 although it is ever a matter of patience to reach the eggs, if wanted, 

 as they can generally only be secured with the aid of saw and hatchet. 

 It has often been a matter of dispute, as to whether there are more 

 than two kinds of Spotted Woodpeckers inhabiting England ; and, 

 until lately, I certainly thought that there were but two — the varie- 

 ties Picus major and minor, the Greater and Lesser Spotted ; but 

 last year I received a bird wrhich certainly alters my opinion, and I 

 now believe there is a second and distinct variety of the larger- 

 spotted sj)ecies. This bird was killed near Basingstoke, in the early 

 summer of 1877, being apparently of full growth, and fully feathered, 

 though evidently a young bird ; and there are many distinctive marks 

 about it, in which it certainly differs from Picus major. It is evi- 

 dently a male bird ; but the crimson on the head, instead of forming 

 a patch on the nape of the neck, as in P. major, covers the whole 

 forehead, as in P. minor ; and surely no future moult would cause 

 this colour to move from the crown of the head and settle itself 

 in a distinct patch on the nape of the neck. It is, besides, a size 

 smaller, though decidedly much bigger than P. minor, and the beak 

 is not so thick at the base or so long as in P. major. The general 

 markings ai*e very similar to the lai'ger species; I could detect 



VOL. XVIII. NO. LIV. z 



