164 BIRD-LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



Other woodland birds that interest us consider- 

 ably are the Woodpeckers. All the indigenous 

 British species are resident in the county, but the 

 Black and White Woodpeckers are much rarer 

 and more local than the Green Woodpecker. The 

 Great Spotted Woodpecker is unquestionably the 

 rarest of the three, but taking into consideration 

 the retiring habits of the species, we should not 

 describe it as uncommon. We have either seen or 

 heard of it in all wooded parts of the county that 

 we have visited. We know that it breeds near 

 Newton Abbot, near Exeter, and in the woods 

 around Ashburton, in the Dart Valley, and near 

 Slapton. The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker is cer- 

 tainly more numerous, but from its small size still 

 more likely to be overlooked. This tiny Wood- 

 pecker is by no means confined to woods ; we 

 have often seen it in pleasure-grounds, and even in 

 isolated trees on lawns and near to houses. It is also 

 a by no means unfrequent visitor to old orchards. 

 Possibly some of the Great Spotted Woodpeckers 

 that visit our eastern coast districts in autumn 

 wander as far to the south-west as Devonshire, but 

 the frequency with which the bird is seen during 

 autumn, winter, and spring, comparatively with 



