106 BIRDS OF LANCASHIRE. 



LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKEE. 



Dendrocopus minor (Linnfeus). 



Resident, but, as far as my information goes, now of 

 very rare occurrence except in one or two localities. 

 The Rev. J. D. Banister notes it as having been found 

 at Redscar, near Preston, some thirty years ago, and 

 Colonel H. W. Feilden writes me that about the same 

 time one was shot by his father at Feniscowles. In the 

 Report of the Bury Nat. Hist. Soc. (1871) it is stated 

 on the authority of Mr. R. Davenport that this species 

 has been known to breed in Simpson Clough, and several 

 examples have been killed in that neighbourhood. Mr. 

 Hugh P. Hornby tells me that one was shot at Winwick 

 about 1867, and a year and a half ago Mr. W. Fitzher- 

 bert Brockholes saw one in his woods at Claughton, 

 where in 1883, on May 11th, a nest of five eggs, a few 

 days sat-on, was taken by Mr. Arthur Breakell. The 

 bird was seen flying out of the nest-hole, which was in 

 the trunk of an old oak, made by a branch being cut off 

 and the part then decaying, and was about a yard up, 

 and a foot into the tree. Mr. Anthony Mason says that 

 the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker is occasionally observed 

 near Grange, and in May, 1883, Mr. Henry Kerr saw 

 one in the woods going to the top of Hamps Fell. 

 Altogether this species would appear to be the rarest of 

 its kind within the limits here treated of. 



