GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 151 



suppose that they are migratory in some of the more 

 northern parts of Europe, perhaps in Norway and Sweden. 

 They arrive about the same time as the Woodcock, and 

 other equatorial migrants ; and generally after stormy 

 weather from the north or north-east. They moult at a 

 late period, as several of those which have come into my 

 hands have been in that state as late as the -10th of 

 November." T. C. Heysham, Esq., has recorded two 

 instances of this bird being obtained in the vicinity of 

 Carlisle, where it is considered a rare species. Sir William 

 Jardine sends me word that it has occurred in Dum- 

 friesshire, and is met with occasionally still farther north. 

 Mr. Selby also says he has seen it in Scotland, on the 

 banks of the river Spey, and amid the wild scenery of the 

 Dee. 



Mr. Thompson of Belfast says,* a specimen of Picus 

 major, preserved in the Museum of the Royal Dublin 

 Society, was shot in the vicinity of that city a few 

 years since : and in the manuscript notes of the late Mr. 

 Templeton, it is stated that an individual of the same 

 species was sent to him in August 1802, from the county 

 of Londonderry. 



This species is found in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, 

 and Russia, and from thence southward over the European 

 continent to Italy. The Zoological Society have received 

 this bird from Oporto, and it is found in Corfu and Sicily. 

 Mr. H. E. Strickland says that it is common in Smyrna. 



The old male has the beak about as long as the head, 

 of a dark and shining horn colour, with a few greyish hair- 

 like feathers projecting over the nostrils ; forehead, ear- 

 coverts, and a circle round the eye, dull dirty white ; 

 irides red ; top of the head dark bluish black ; occiput 



* Proceedings of the ZooL Soc. for 1835, p. 79. 



