48 The Naturalist in Siluria. 



pecker; in many districts one or the other altogether 

 wanting, and some where neither is known to exist. 

 From my own observation of them in Herefordshire, a 

 balance might be struck as to their abundance, some 

 " lays " of country seeming to have more of the Great 

 Spotted, others of the Lesser, just as in one place there 

 will be only tree pipits, while in another, near by, those 

 of the meadow species alone are seen. Perhaps as good 

 a guide as any to the comparative numbers of the Great 

 and Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers, taking them all over 

 the country, is to be found in the price lists of the 

 taxidermists. One I have before me gives the following 

 quotations : Skin of the Great Spotted, 3s. ; egg, 9d. 

 Skin of the Lesser Spotted, 3s. Qd. ; egg, 2s. 



By this it would appear that the Lesser Spotted is the 

 rarer bird, and its nest more difficult to find. Still, that 

 may arise from its more diminutive bulk, making it less 

 conspicuous and so less liable to be shot. Certainly in 

 my neighbourhood, and about my own grounds, it is the 

 more plentiful of the two, as also throughout the adjacent 

 Forest of Dean, where both species are met with in con- 

 siderable numbers, though still far from common. 



The name <( Spotted " is for either much of a misnomer. 

 There is scarcely a pot on them, but instead several well- 

 defined bars of black and white, so that " barred " would 

 be a more appropriate appellation. 



From my observation of the two species, their habits 

 appear to be much alike, while differing in many respects 

 from those of the Picus viridis. They keep more within 

 the woods and to timber trees than it especially the 

 Great Spotted ; while the Green is a forager in orchards, 

 and alights on pasture fields where ants, left long undis- 

 turbed, have thrown up their hundreds of hillocks. I 



