LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 115 
LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 
DENDROCOPUS MINOR (Linnezeus). 
Owing to its smaller size and its habit of frequenting 
the tree-tops, the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker has 
probably been even more often overlooked than the 
preceding species. It has, however, been observed in 
many widely separated localities in Wirral and the 
Plain. 
The bird is not included in Brockholes’ list, although 
Byerley mentions a wood near Bromborough Pool as 
a locality for it;4 and Mr. W. Cox of Liverpool informed 
Dr. Dobie that he had received for preservation several 
examples which had been obtained in Eastham Woods.? 
The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker breeds at Eaton, 
where Dr. Dobie was shown a nest in which a brood 
had recently been reared by the hen bird after the 
cock had been killed. In June 1886 an example was 
obtained at Tiverton. In the Grosvenor Museum, 
Chester, there are specimens from Saighton and Ince, 
both killed in winter. At the latter place several have 
been seen or heard since 1884, and during the autumn 
of 1893 one frequented some tall elms for several 
weeks.2 At Edge the bird is plentiful, and the Rev. 
C. Wolley-Dod states that it begins to rattle at the 
end of January or beginning of February, the noise 
being fainter than that made by its larger congener, 
and only audible to a distance of about two hundred 
yards. Mr. K. H. Jones, who has once seen the bird 
in Delamere Forest, informs us that it breeds every 
year at Plumbley, where he has taken eggs in June. 
1 Byerley, op. cit. p. 15. 
2 Dobie, op. cit. p. 309. 3 Field, vol. \xxxvii. p. 737. 1896. 
