LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 161 



sionally in Sussex, and from London eastward and northward 

 has been found in Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, 

 Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, and, as I am informed by Mr. 

 Thomas Allis, in Yorkshire. Further northward it is more 

 rare ; but Sir Robert Sibbald includes Picus varius minor 

 as a bird of Scotland, and this is a name by which our 

 Little Woodpecker, the smallest of the European species, 

 was designated by some authors. Professor Nilsson in- 

 cludes this species in his Fauna of Scandinavia, giving re- 

 presentations of both sexes ; and M. Vieillot says, that it 

 is found as far as the eastern part of Siberia. On the 

 southern part of the European continent it is found, though 

 sparingly, as far as Rome, and in Sicily. 



The male has the beak shorter than the head, angular, 

 pointed, and black ; hair-like feathers at the base of the 

 beak, projecting over the nostrils, greyish brown ; forehead 

 dull white ; crown of the head bright scarlet ; occiput and 

 nape black ; irides reddish hazel ; cheeks, ear-coverts, and 

 each side of the nape down to the scapulars, white ; under 

 the ear-coverts on each side a patch of black ; upper part 

 of the back and the scapulars black ; middle of the back 

 white, barred transversely with black ; upper tail-coverts 

 black ; upper part of the wings black ; both sets of wing- 

 coverts black, tipped with white ; quill -feathers greyish 

 black, with angular spots of white on the outer webs, and 

 rounded spots of white on the inner webs, forming four 

 conspicuous and almost regular white bars ; the four middle 

 tail-feathers black, somewhat pointed and stiff ; the next 

 on each side tipped with white ; the other two on each side 

 white barred with black ; chin, throat, and all the under 

 surface of the body, dirty white ; the sides of the breast 

 marked with a few descending black lines ; under tail- 

 coverts with a few black spots ; legs, toes, and claws, lead 

 colour. 



VOL. II. M 



