THE WOODPECKERS 



1737 



well as North America; but the genus is absent from Africa below the Sahara, 

 although represented in Algeria and Morocco, as in Palestine and Syria. A resi- 

 dent species in most parts of the British Islands, a considerable number of immi- 

 grants arriving in the autumn, during which season a large number regularly pass 

 over Heligoland, the greater spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopus major], with its 

 conspicuous pied plumage, is a handsome and striking bird. A notable difference 



GREATER, MIDDLE, AND LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKERS- 

 (One-half natural size. ) 



exists, however, between the coloration of the two sexes, the males having a red 

 patch at the back of the head, totally wanting in the females, in which the entire 

 head and nape of the neck is black. The young birds, on the other hand, have the 

 crown red, thus possessing a more striking coloration than either of the parents, a 

 feature not often to be seen in birds. So shy is the greater spotted woodpecker, that 

 but few people are acquainted with it in a state of nature, and even where the bird 



