PICID®. 251 
being fledged and able to take care of themselves by 
the middle of July. Yarrell says he once saw some 
young ones kept in confinement by one of the 
keepers at Kensington Gardens, in which place these 
birds are rather frequently to be found: they were 
climbing all about the inside of their cage, which was 
hung against a large tree near the lodge. 
In plumage the Greater Spotted Woodpecker is a 
very handsome bird, conspicuous from the very 
decided contrast of colour which it presents. ‘The 
following description is taken from a bird shot in 
Combe Wood, near here, in April, and kindly pre- 
sented to me by Mr. Winter the day it was shot. 
The beak is dark horn-colour, bluish grey (inclining 
to white) on the under part of the lower mandible ;. 
irides red; forehead, just over the beak, and space 
under the eyes, and a narrow streak over it and the 
ear-coverts, white; head black; in the adult male 
there is a band of crimson at the back of the neck ; 
there is a streak of black from the base of the beak, 
under the ear-coverts, down the side of the neck to 
the breast, and from it a streak of black behind the 
ear-coverts, which, as well as the back of the neck, 
are black, except one well-defined spot of white 
on each side; the back, rump and tail-coverts are 
black; the scapulars, some of the greater coverts of 
the tertials, white; the lesser wing-coverts and all 
the rest of the greater-coverts black; primary quills 
black, brownish towards the tips, with several well- 
