130 PICID.E. 



Black Woodpecker agrees, as far as its history can be ga- 

 thered from the works of European Ornithologists. The egg 

 of this bird is exactly like that of our well-known Green 

 Woodpecker in shape and colour, but is considerably larger. 

 One specimen, in the possession of Mr. Wilmot, whose rich 

 collection was referred to in the account of the Nutcracker, 

 last described, is one inch four lines long, and one inch one 

 line in breadth. According to M. Temminck, the Black 

 Woodpecker lays three eggs, and in default of finding insect 

 food, will feed on nuts, seeds, or berries. 



The Black Woodpecker is not found in Holland, but M. 

 Vieillot and Polydore Roux include it among the birds of 

 France and Provence. M. Necker says it is not uncommon 

 in the pine forests of the mountains of Switzerland, and M. 

 Savi also says that it is not uncommon on the mountains of 

 Savoy and in the Tyrol, occasionally in winter appearing in 

 the vicinity of Rome. Mr. H. E. Strickland, in his Cata- 

 logue of birds obtained or seen in Asia Minor, mentions that 

 he saw a specimen of this Woodpecker in the possession of 

 Mr. Zohrab, at Broussa, which was shot in the pine forests of 

 Mount Parnassus. Northward, it is a native of Denmark, 

 Sweden, and Norway. Mr. Hewitson, in reference to the 

 Birds of Norway, says, " In two instances only the Great 

 Black Woodpecker was seen at a distance, but so wild, that 

 it was impossible to approach it ; on the wing it looks like a 

 Crow, and its notes resemble a loud hoarse laugh." It is 

 found in Germany, and from thence to the most northern 

 parts of Russia and Siberia ; this bird, therefore, has an ex- 

 tended latitudinal range. 



The male : — Beak as long as the head, rather conical in 

 shape, with a well-defined, elevated, central ridge, extending 

 the whole length of the upper mandible from the base to the 

 point ; in colour it is black at the end, passing by a bluish 

 horn colour to almost white at the base ; a small tuft of black 



