156 



They arrive about the same time as the Woodcock, and 

 other equatorial migrants ; and generally after stormy 

 weather from the north or north-east. They moult at a 

 late period, as several of those which have come into my 

 hands have been in that state as late as the 10th of Novem- 

 ber." T. C. Heysham, Esq. has recorded two instances of 

 this bird being obtained in the vicinity of Carlisle, where 

 it is considered a rare species. Sir William Jardine sends 

 me word that it has occurred in Dumfriesshire, and is met 

 with occasionally still farther north. Dr. J. A. Smith has 

 recorded the occurrence of one that was shot near Dry- 

 burgh Abbey. Mr. Selby also says he has seen it in Scot- 

 land, on the banks of the river Spey, and amid the wild 

 scenery of the Dee. 



Mr. Thompson, of Belfast, says,* a specimen of Picus 

 major, preserved in the Museum of the Royal Dublin So- 

 ciety, was shot in the vicinity of that city a few years 

 since ; and in the manuscript notes of the late Mr. Tem- 

 pleton, it is stated that t an individual of the same species 

 was sent to him in August, 1802, from the county of Lon- 

 donderry. 



This species is found in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, 

 and Russia, and from thence southward over the European 

 continent to Italy. The Zoological Society have received 

 this bird from Oporto, and it is found in Corfu and Sicily. 

 Mr. H. E. Strickland says that it is common in Smyrna. 



The old male has the beak about as long as the head, 

 of a dark and shining horn colour, with a few .greyish hair- 

 like feathers projecting over the nostrils ; forehead, ear- 

 coverts, and a circle round the eye, dull dirty white ; irides 

 red ; top of the head dark bluish black ; occiput bright 

 scarlet ; nape of the neck black, this colour passing for- 

 ward, above a white spot, by a narrow stripe, which at the 

 * Proceedings of the Zool. Soc. for 1835, p. 79. 



