'OCTOBER 233 



assassination of a great spotted or pied woodpecker ; 

 and if anything were wanting to darken the tragedy, 

 it is supplied in the terms in which the local news- 

 paper exults over the victim as ' a distinct novelty to 

 the district, as they are very seldom seen in the 

 strath.' 



A distinct novelty ! Then why not encourage it to 

 remain ? instead of which it is floored with as much 

 eagerness as if it were a Bengal tiger harboured in the 

 woods, and set up in caricature of its brightness and 

 grace by the local bird-stuffer. 



What makes this incident peculiarly distressing to 

 true naturalists is that the great spotted woodpecker 

 is beginning to reoccupy those haunts in Scotland 

 which it frequented before the disappearance of the 

 forests. It is believed to have become actually extinct 

 previous to 1850, but is now thoroughly re-established 

 as a breeding species in central, southern, and eastern 

 Scotland. The question has arisen among ornitholo- 

 gists whence did these Scottish colonists come ? Have 

 they spread gradually northwards from England, or is 

 it possible that they are a fresh and independent 

 immigration from northern Europe? At first sight 

 the English origin of these birds would seem most 

 probable, for none of the woodpeckers are constructed 

 for sustained flight, their pectoral muscles being very 

 shallow, so as to enable them to cling closely to vertical 

 surfaces. In this country one never sees them do 

 much more than flit from tree to tree. But in the 

 October number of the Annals of Scottish Natural 

 History Mr. William Evans adduces evidence in 



