LESSER SPOTTED AVOODPECKER. 149 



Cambridgeshire, Leicestershire, Lincohishire, and as I am 

 informed by Mr. Thomas Allis, in Yorkshire. Further 

 northward it is more rare ; but Sir Robert Sibbald includes 

 Picus varius minor as a bird of Scotland, and this is a 

 name by which our Little Woodpecker, the smallest of the 

 European species, Avas designated by some authors. Pro- 

 fessor Nilsson includes this species in his Fauna of Scandina- 

 via, giving representations of both sexes ; and M. Vieillot 

 says, that it is found as far as the eastern part of Siberia. 

 On the southern part of the European continent it is found, 

 though sparingly, as far as Rome. 



The male has the beak shorter than the head, angular, 

 pointed, and black ; hair-like feathers at the base of the beak, 

 projecting over the nostrils, greyish brown ; foi-ehead dull 

 white ; crown of the head bright scarlet ; occiput and nape 

 black ; irides reddish hazel ; cheeks, ear-coverts, and each side 

 of the nape down to the scapulars, Avhite ; under the ear- 

 coverts on each side a patcli of black ; upper part of the back 

 and the scapulars black : middle of the back white, barred 

 transversely with black ; upper tail-coverts black ; upper part 

 of the wings black ; both sets of wing-coverts black, tipped 

 with white ; quill -feathers greyish black, with angular spots 

 of white on the outer webs, and rounded spots of white on 

 the inner webs, forming four conspicuous and almost regular 

 white bars ; the four middle tail-feathers black, somewhat 

 pointed and stiff; the next on each side tipped with white ; 

 the other two on each side white barred with black ; chin, 

 throat, and all the under surface of the body, dirty white; 

 the sides of the breast marked with a few descending black 

 lines ; under tail-coverts with a few black spots ; legs, toes, 

 and claws, lead colour. 



The whole length five inches and three quarters. From 

 the carpal joint to the end of the wing three inches and three- 

 eighths : the first feather very short ; the second the same 



