350 DENDROCOPUS. 



writes thus : " No specimen, however, known to 

 have been certainly killed in this country, exists 

 in any of our museums, and there is strong reason 

 to doubt the reality of its claims to a place in the 

 British fauna." * The authority previous to this 

 rests with the works of Drs Latham and Pulteny. 

 We have no means of immediately clearing this 

 doubt, or of tracing the specimens alluded to by 

 the above mentioned gentlemen ; but, at all 

 events, the bird will only rank as a straggler, 

 and as one of the rarest in our list, and we intro- 

 duce it, as we have done many others, to attract 

 attention to the subject. On the Continent it is 

 most common in the northern and central parts ; 

 according to Temminck extending to Siberia, 

 and sometimes appearing in Holland. It is not 

 known beyond the, European boundary. In the 

 males, the plumage is entirely black, excepting 

 the crown, which is crimson. In the female, the 

 crimson is limited to 'a spot on the occiput ; 

 while in the young the crimson is partially mixed 

 with black. 



The next form is 



DENDROCOPUS, Swains. Generic characters. 

 Bill, with the culmen nearly straight, as 

 broad at the base as high, and not com- 

 pressed on the sides ; feet with the versatile 

 toe longer than the anterior; wings rather 

 lengthened and pointed, third quill longest. 



Types. D. major, fyc. 



* British Vertebrata, p. 151. 



