400 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
same branch forms a complete post-auricular bar. Here again 
Mr. Gurney’s bird agrees with D. major and not with D. leuconotus, 
though Mr. Gould’s figure, taken from this very specimen, omits 
the bar altogether! Once more, D. leuconotus has large white 
spots on the greater wing-coverts, which are generally wholly 
wanting and never largely developed in D. major; and once more 
Mr. Gurney’s bird agrees with D. major. Characters like these 
completely outweigh the slight resemblance that Mr. Gurney’s 
bird bears to D. leuconotus in the indistinct streaks on the sides 
of the belly, which Mr. Gould thought were distinctive of the 
young of that species, for they occasionally occur in the young of 
D. major—though not, so far as my experience goes, in examples 
of British origin. But the history of Mr. Gurney’s bird points 
to a foreign origin for it, since it was indubitably one of a number 
of refugees to the Shetlands (not “the Hebrides,” by the way, as 
Mr. Gould inadvertently states), not very likely to have flown 
thither at that time of year (September) from any part of Great 
Britain. Finally to settle, as I hope, this point for ever, I 
have compared Mr. Gurney’s bird with an unquestionably young 
specimen of D. leuconotus in the British Museum, obtained by 
Herr Meves at Onega, June 28th, 1869. This last resembles, as 
might be expected, the adult of the same species very closely, 
differing only just in the way that the young of most pied 
Woodpeckers differ from their seniors. Consequently it is wholly 
unlike Mr. Gurney’s bird, which I can now affirm in the most 
positive manner is Nor D. lewconotus—and therefore the only 
claim for the admission of that species to the British list falls to 
the ground. Herein I may say that Mr. Seebohm, who kindly 
assisted me in my comparison of specimens at the British 
Museum, entirely concurs, as also does Mr. Salvin, though 
the latter had not the advantage of seeing so large a series of 
specimens. 
Having thus proved, as I trust, that Mr. Gurney’s bird is not 
a D. lewconotus,* the next thing of course was to find out what 
it is. Its most remarkable features, and those only which are 
peculiar to it, are the grey upper wing-coverts and hind-head 
* To obviate any future error on the subject, I may say that it differs 
just as strongly (though of course in other ways) from D. medius, which 
some, according to Saxby (Birds Shetl. p. 141), have supposed it to be. 
