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Although by many naturalists the various Pied Woodpeckers are considered to be nothing more 

 than races or, as we prefer to call them, subspecies of the ordinary Picus major, we cannot admit 

 that the present bird can be for one moment included in this category. It possesses the following 

 excellent specific characters, which distinguish it from Picus major, viz. a distinct red pectoral 

 band, and a longer and more slender bill. But the most remarkable point in connexion with 

 this species is, in our opinion, the black forehead of the young bird, which is afterwards lost, and 

 a fulvous colour assumed, as is the case with the ordinary Pied Woodpeckers. 



The Algerian Pied Woodpecker is, as its name implies, an inhabitant of Northern Africa, 

 being found in Algeria and Tangiers, and is also stated by Malherbe, without hesitation, to be in 

 the Canaries. Dr. Bolle, who has visited these islands, "speaks of a Woodpecker under the 

 name of Picus major as being common on the Canaries, and in Morocco in localities where the 

 pine-trees grow; and he surmises that this may probably be Picus numidicus. In his second 

 paper on the Birds of the Canaries, he also considers that it is this species, as he speaks of it as 

 "P. numidicus V Dr. Bolle writes that it is tolerably common in the pine-wood of Chasna, where 

 he observed it paired in April. It is not less generally distributed in Pinal, in Gran Canaria ; 

 and Berthelot assured him that it had been killed at Monte de las Mercedes, near Laguna, where 

 only non-evergreen trees are found." 



While in Tangiers, Mr. C. F. Tyrwhitt Drake found it on the Tetuan mountains; and 

 Mr. Osbert Salvin says he " shot one of these birds in a tree that overhangs a small marabout 

 that stands on the north side of the eastern precipice of Djebel Dekma," during his expedition 

 to the Eastern Atlas. Eespecting its distribution in Algeria, we give the following note from 

 the great work of Captain Loche : — " So far as we know, this species has hitherto been met with 

 only in Algeria, where it inhabits all the forests of the three provinces. Its flight is swift, 

 tortuous, and jerky; it is shy, and not easy of approach, excepting at nightfall, when, before 

 retiring for the night into its roosting-place in a hollow tree, it flies round the spot several times. 

 It nests in a hole in a tree, and deposits four or five eggs, rather short and glossy, white in 

 colour, measuring about 23 by 18 millimetres. The individuals which frequent the burnt forests 

 have the under parts of their plumage brownish-coloured, which arises from friction against 

 the burnt bark of the cork trees. The food of this Woodpecker consists of larvae and various 

 species of insects ; and only when hard pressed does it ever feed on berries. It hunts carefully 

 after insects that infest the bark of trees, and is of great use in destroying numbers of noxious 

 insects that do so such damage to our forests." 



It has even been supposed to occur in Germany ; for Dr. Altum records the occurrence of 

 this species in Germany, having obtained a male at CElde, in Minister, which was in company 

 with a female of Picus major, or at least a bird that he could not find different from a female of 

 the last-named species. Dr. Altum particularly refers to the red band across the breast, but 

 states that the bird did not otherwise differ from males of Picus major. He further found in his 

 collection two young birds having one or two small red feathers in the breast. 



The figures and descriptions of the adults are from specimens in our own collection ; the 

 young bird, however, is drawn from the figure in Malherbe's Monograph of the Picidce. 



