Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. 255 



Finally, Dr. Blackmore, not long since, picked one up dead in the 

 Museum garden at Salisbury. 



Mr. Cecil Smith says that it is known in Somerset as the 

 ' Barred Woodpecker/ and Mr. Knox that it is called in Sussex 

 the ' Little French Woodpecker ;' but Professor Newton says 

 that it is sometimes called the 'Crank Bird,' and the 'Pump- 

 borer/ and used to be called the ' Wood-cracker/ from a remark- 

 able note which it utters in the spring, the sound being supposed 

 to resemble that of an auger when used on the hardest wood. 

 He also adds, it is especially common in the counties of Berks, 

 Wilts, and Somerset. In France it is known as Pic Epeichette, 

 diminutive of P. Epeiche; in Germany, Grasspecht ; in Italy, 

 Picchio sarto minore ; in Sweden, Mindre Hackspett. It 

 appears to be scarcely known in Spain and Portugal. 



Bewick used to assert that a third Spotted Woodpecker (Picus 

 medius), which is not uncommon on the Continent, occasionally 

 appeared in England ; more modern naturalists, however, deny 

 this, and affirm that the young of the Great Spotted Wood- 

 pecker was mistaken for that bird. The late Mr. Marsh thought 

 that Bewick was right, and that we have three distinct species. 

 He says : * I have three very different from each other ; they are 

 sometimes found in Draycote Woods, where one of my specimens 

 was shot: the largest was killed there; the next in size was 

 killed in Clarendon Park, the smallest in Amesbury Park." 



Mr. Morres also felt convinced that the ' Middle Spotted 

 Woodpecker ' occasionally visited us, but Professor Newton will 

 not allow that an authentic instance of its appearance in England 

 has yet occurred, and declares that Pennant and Bewick, and all 

 who followed them, mistook the red-headed young of the Great 

 Spotted Woodpecker for this purely continental bird.* 



105. GOLD-WINGED WOODPECKER (Picus auratus). 



There is but one instance recorded of the appearance of this 

 beautiful bird in England, and that was in the autumn of 1836 

 at Amesbury Park in this county : it was brought to M. H. Marsh, 

 * Fourth edition of Yarrell's ' British Birds,' vol. ii., p. 484. 



