The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. ?7 



Macpherson observes:—"! am imidi struck ])y tlic adroit way in which he 

 catches a morsel of food wliicli he lias let drop : lie does so either on his 

 chest pressed suddenly to the Ijark to intercept it, or across the tarsi ; on more 

 than one occasion I have seen liini move a leg to intercept a falling meal- 

 worm, and this with unvarying success." 



By July the 14th the Woodpecker had done consideraljle damage to the 

 woodwork of his cage, and on August 4th Mr. Macpherson turned him into a 

 small outdoor aviary ; he lived on excellent terms with the small birds in the 

 aviary, " though when kept indoors, he showed a great hatred to some young 

 Red-backed Shrikes." 



Mr. Macpherson writes that two examples of this species were brought to 

 him in 1894, and his friend Thorpe reared one of them ; but it escaped from 

 his aviary in the following winter through the folly of a manservant. 



Fa7nily—PICIDAi. Subfamily— P/C/N^. 



The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. 



Dendrocopus minor, LlNN. 



GENERAIvEY distributed over nearl}- the whole of Europe, breeding as far 

 northward as lat. 70° in Scandinavia and North Russia, and in Eastern 

 Russia and Western Siberia up to lat. 67°, whilst in Eastern Siberia it does not 

 range so far north. Slightl}' differing races occur in various parts of Asia and in 

 Algeria ; thus the form from N. Europe and Siberia has been called Picus pipra, 

 that from Asia Minor P. da7ifordi, that in xAlgeria P. kdouci, but intergrades occur 

 in the intermediate localities. The species occurs in Kamtschatka, Japan, and N. 

 China. In the Azores it is resident. 



Although smaller, and therefore in that respect less conspicuous than the 



