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THE WHITE-BACKED WOODPECKER NOT A BRITISH BIRD. 
By Atrrep Nuwron, M.A., F.R.S. 
Since, of necessity, some time will elapse before the 
appearance of Part XV. of the revised edition of Yarrell’s 
‘British Birds, to which I have to defer my remarks on 
the various foreign species of Picide which are reported to 
have occurred in this country, it may interest the readers of 
‘The Zoologist’ to know that the claim advanced on behalf 
of one of them—Picus or (as I prefer calling it) Dendrocopus 
leuconotus, the White-backed Woodpecker—is, in my opinion, 
wholly inadmissible. That claim rests solely upon a specimen, 
said to be one of those which were recorded nearly twenty years 
ago (Zool. 7754, 7932) as obtained by the late Dr. Saxby in 
Shetland and referred to this species by the late Mr. Gould, by 
whom it was figured in his ‘ Birds of Great Britain,’ as Mr. J. Hs 
Gurney rightly states (Zool. s.s. 4695). Thanks to its owner, 
the gentleman last named, I have been allowed to examine it, 
and I may say that not much comparison was needed to excite 
my suspicion that Mr. Gould was absolutely mistaken in his 
determination of it. It was so minutely described by Messrs. 
Dresser and Sharpe, in their ‘Birds of Europe,’ as a variety of 
Picus or (as I should say) Dendrocopus major, that I need not 
enter into many particulars. 
Apart from size and the form of the beak, the most obvious 
distinction between D. major and D. leuconotus is that the latter 
has the middle of the back white, and the scapulars black, while 
in the former the allocation of these colours in those parts is 
reversed—D. major having conspicuous white scapulars (with a 
few occasional dark marks), and the back wholly black. In 
these respects Mr. Gurney’s specimen entirely agrees with 
D. major—Mr. Gould’s assertion, that “if the long black feathers 
of the back be lifted, a large amount of white will be found 
beneath,” being contrary to fact. Again, in D. leuconotus that 
branch of the black mandibular stripe which passes upwards 
behind the ear-coverts does not meet the black of the head, while 
in D. major (except perhaps in examples from near Constantinople, 
which in this respect show a tendency towards D. syriacus) the 
