observed in Switzerland. 177 



male is very loud, and sometimes startling, though far less 

 harsh than that of the male Green Woodpecker. 



Gecinus viridis (Linn.). 



The Green Woodpecker is very common in the low wooded 

 country, but I did not find it on the fir- covered ridge of 

 Chaumont. I have watched with a binocular both sexes, 

 in April, uttering their note, and may state that it is much 

 softer and more rippling in the female than in the male. 

 During the intense cold of January 1891 I observed this 

 species searching systematically for food under the eaves of 

 farm-houses, and also sending its bill far under the " shingles" 

 of roofs exposed to the sun, I never heard its laugh as long 

 as the severe weather lasted. 



Gecinus canus (J. F. Gmelin). 



I saw this species only in the Grisons ; it looks distinctly 

 smaller and duller in colour than the Green Woodpecker, on 

 the wing. Local specimens are in the Neuchatel Museum, 

 but it is rare in the Jura district ; also of rare occurrence 

 near Vevey (E. G. d^H.). 



Dendrocopus major (Linn.). 



The Great Spotted Woodpecker is generally distributed in 

 .the wooded districts, and was often observed, even in Lau- 

 sanne itself. On April 6th, close by the Tribunal on the Mont 

 Benon, a Sunday crowd stood watching a fine male bird 

 which was sending the chips flying from a rotten place in a 

 large elm, 10 to 15 feet above the heads of his observers, 

 and the next day he was working hard on the same tree, but 

 on the other side ; the amount of splinters and rotten wood 

 at the foot of the tree would have well filled a bushel-mea- 

 sure. A female was sitting on her eggs in a hole in a spruce 

 fir on May 23rd, in the Jura. I often saw this species on 

 banks (as well as on trees), but never on the level ground 

 among the leaves, where the Green Woodpecker is frequent. 



Local specimens of D. minor are in all the collections ; 

 of D. medius chiefly in those of the east and of the Rhine 

 valley, though there is an example in the NeuchMel Museum 

 from that canton. 



