HAIRY WOODPECKER. 



i-illosus, LIN.VJCUS. GMELIX. 



PicusA bird that makes holes in trees, supposed to be the 

 Woodpecker. Villosiis Hairy. 



I AM: here also indebted to W. F. W. Bird, Esq., for a 

 careful collection of the different accounts of this species as 

 a British bird. Dr. Latham's is as follows: 'This has been 

 met with in England, but I have only heard of two or three 

 instances of the circumstance; one, in particular, communicated 

 by the late Mr. Bolton, of Stannary, near Halifax, Yorkshire, 

 of a pair being shot among the old trees in the park of Sir 

 George Armitage, Baronet, at Kirklees Hall, where they no 

 doubt had been bred, but the wood being cut down the suc- 

 ceeding winter, the rest forsook the ground, and could not 

 be traced further. The above pair were presented to the late 

 Duchess Dowager of Portland, in whose collection I saw them 

 many years since. These birds answered to the general des- 

 cription in every particular, except in not having the red 

 bar across the back of the head so complete, their being only 

 a patch of that colour on each side of the head.' So also 

 says Wilson. 



In the 'British Cyclopaedia,' vol. iii, page 447, it is observed, 

 'This is understood to be a discursive bird, at least to a 

 considerable extent, for a specimen or two are reported to 

 have made their appearance in England; and either it, or a 

 species very similar, has been found in the eastern parts of 

 Siberia. That an American Woodpecker should find its way 

 to Siberia is by no means unlikely; coming to England, 

 however, is a different matter.' The writer of the above dors 

 not seem to have calculated that though the diilicultv may 



