GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 351 



Note. Plumage chiefly black and white, dis- 

 posed above in patches or bars. 

 Europe, Asia, America. 



GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, DENDROCO- 

 PUS MAJOR, Swainson. Picus major, Linn. 

 Greater Spotted Woodpecker of British authors. 

 This species is the only representative of the 

 Picidce, which extends to the northern part of 

 our island, and it is there of rare occurrence. 

 The unfrequency, indeed, of all the specimens of 

 British Woodpeckers, particularly in the northern 

 parts of Britain, prevents us from giving any 

 account of them from observation, but so far as 

 we can learn from the works and information of 

 others, the present species is most common in 

 some of the southern counties of England where 

 it breeds ; as we proceed northward it appears to 

 be partially migratory, and in Northumberland, 

 Mr Selby observes, scarcely a year passes without 

 some of these birds being obtained in the months 

 of October and November. This also accords 

 with our own observations, of a few individuals 

 which we have known to have been killed in 

 Dumfries and Roxburghshires, and which were 

 obtained at these seasons. Mr Selby also men- 

 tions having seen it on the banks of the Dee and 

 Spey ; we are not aware of its occurrence farther 

 north, and never met with it in any of our excur- 

 sions in the Highlands. In Ireland, on the autho- 

 rity of Mr Thompson, it is only recorded to have 



