354 BRITISH BIRDS. 



PIOUS MAJOR. 

 GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 



(PLATE 18.) 



Picus varius major, Sriss. Om. iv. p. 34 (1760). 



Picus major, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 176 (1766) ; et auctorum plurimorum 



Latham, Temminck, Naumann, Bonaparte, (Neiuton), Dresser, &c. 

 Dendrocopus major (Linn.), Koch, Syst. baier. Zool. p. 72 (1816). 

 Picus varius, Linn, apud Forst. Syn. Cat. Br. B. p. 49 (1817). 

 Picus cissa, PaU. Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat. i. p. 412 (1826). 

 Dryobates major (Linn.), Boie, Isis, 1828, p. 326. 

 Picus pipra, Macgitt. Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 80 (1840, nee Pallas). 

 Picus alpestris, Reich. Handb. Picince, p. 365 (1851). 

 Picus mesospilus, Reich. Handb. Picince, p. 365 (1851). 

 Picus brevirostris, Reich. Handb. Picince, p. 365 (1851). 

 Picus baskiriensis, Verreaux,Jide Bonap. Consp. Vol. Zyg. p. 8 (1854). 



The Great Spotted Woodpecker is principally a forest-bird, and pro- 

 bably breeds in every county in England and Wales wherever the woods 

 are sufficiently extensive and the trees large enough. In Scotland it is 

 not so abundant, and appears to be to a great extent confined to the 

 central counties, neither the wild moorlands of the north nor the carefully- 

 farmed lowlands of the south offering it the shelter and seclusion which 

 it loves. The scarcity of forest in Ireland probably accounts for its rarity 

 in that country and for the fact that it is not known to breed there. 



In most parts of England the Great Spotted Woodpecker is a resident ; 

 but its numbers are largely increased in autumn by immigrants from the 

 continent. Several small flocks of these birds, mostly birds of the year 

 which had not completed their moult, passed over Heligoland during the 

 month that I visited the island *, and it is well known as a regular autumnal 

 migrant to the east coast both of England and Scotland. In the autumn 

 of 1861 unusual numbers visited Norfolk and Cambridgeshire (Stevenson, 

 'Birds of Norfolk/ i. p. 289), when they also appeared on the Orkney 

 and Shetland Islands and even on the Faroes. 



The Great Spotted Woodpecker is a partial resident in the wooded dis- 

 tricts throughout Europe, Siberia, and Japan. In Scandinavia it is rarely 

 found north of the Arctic circle ; in Russia it is a common resident up to 



* My friend Mr. Gaetke informs me that this is the only species of Woodpecker which 

 passes Heligoland regularly, never in large quantities, but most numerous in autumn. 

 The only other Woodpeckers that have been observed on Heligoland during the last forty- 

 five years are a single example of Gecinus viridis and a single example of Picus leuconotuSi 



