EFFECTS UPON ANIMAL LIFE 359 



Abernethy generally... it must have spread widely over all the old wooded 

 tracts of Spey and Findhorn, as well as north of the Caledonian Canal. 



The consensus of recorded observation and of opinions 

 elicited from woodsmen by Dr Harvie-Brown set down the 

 date of its disappearance as between 1840 and 1850. 



Various suggestions have been made as to the cause 



Fig. 61. Great Spotted Woodpecker at one period exterminated as a nesting 

 species in Scotland. About $ nat. size. 



of its gradual extermination the enmity of Squirrels, the 

 stealing of nesting-holes by increasing numbers of Star- 

 lings, and the destruction of the forest. The Squirrel 

 was not a prime cause, for the Woodpeckers declined in 

 numbers even while the Squirrel was disappearing. The 

 Starling is an enemy to be reckoned with in the neigh- 

 bourhood of human habitations, but there is no evidence 



