PICIN.E. 265 



GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 



Dendrocopus major (Linnaeus). 



The Oreat Spotted Woodpecker is often supposed to be rarer 

 than it really is, in consequence of ils retiring nature and its habit 

 of confining itself to the higher branches of trees, but nowhere in 

 the British Islands can it be considered abundant. It is, however, 

 fairly distributed throughout the wooded portions of England, and 

 though naturally rare in the treeless parts of Cornwall, and scarce in 

 Wales, it is not unfrequent in many of the southern and midland 

 counties. North of Yorkshire it becomes rare as a breeding species, 

 and there is little evidence that it nests in Scotland at the present 

 ■day ; but from the Shetlands southward, especially along the east 

 coast of Great Britain, it occurs irregularly on the autumn migra- 

 tion, sometimes in considerable numbers, as in 1861, 1862, 1868 

 and 1886. In Ireland it is not known to breed, but it has been 

 •obtained at long intervals ; several were taken in the autumn of 1S86 

 and one in February 1887. 



This Woodpecker has wandered to the Faeroes, and is the only 

 member of the family which regularly visits Heligoland in autumn ; 

 doubtless on its migration from Scandinavia, where it breeds as far 

 north as the Arctic circle. In Russia it is common up to about 



