262 THE GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 



sently a fine Woodpecker commenced operations on a rail, 

 close to where lie was standing ; so he watched and satis- 

 fied himself as to its identity. On regaining the road, he 

 was overtaken by Mr. Smith, residing at Letham, who 

 informed him that he had a rare bird in his pocket ; upon 

 producing which, strange to say, here was another specimen 

 of Picus major, shot at Monynut in the Lammermuirs. 

 Upon visiting the bird-stuffer in Berwick, he was shown 

 three other specimens, one of which had been shot near 

 Eyemouth. A few years ago Lord William Kennedy shot a 

 Great Spotted Woodpecker in Edington Hill Wood, about a 

 mile from Chirnside ; and Mr. Stewart, at one time residing 

 at Blanerne, shot another most beautiful specimen on Leader- 

 side, in this county. The first of these two examples was 

 certainly Idlled in the shooting season, and, if my memory is 

 right, about the month of November or December." ^ Mr. 

 John Aitchison, plasterer, Duns, has told me that a bird 

 of this species was shot at Channobank, near Abbey St. 

 Bathans about 1850; and Mr. Scott, Lauder, has informed 

 me that one was killed in Edgarhope Wood, Lauderdale, 

 about 1860. In September 1868, when this bird appears 

 to have been seen in considerable numbers in various 

 parts of Scotland — including Berwickshire — Mr. Compton- 

 Lundie shot one at Spital House ; and about the same time 

 the forester at Paxton House saw another climbing up a larch 

 tree in the policy-ground there. On the 20th of September 

 of that year a Great Spotted Woodpecker was seen at Mord- 

 ington, in the gamekeeper's garden. In 1874, Miss Georgina 

 Milne-Home presented to Berwick Museum a specimen 

 which was got at Milne Graden a few years before that 

 date. Mr. Cowe, Lochton, tells me that two were shot in a 

 wood by the side of the Tweed there in 1874. Writing in 



i Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol. v. pp. 409, 410. 



