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Leiden, Dresser made a careful comparison of specimens in the magnificent collection under the care of 

 Professor Schlegel, and found that birds from Central Europe did not appreciably differ from those 

 obtained in Siberia. One very light-coloured bird from Siberia had the underparts white, very slightly 

 marked with black, the under tail-coverts white, the outer web of the outer tail-feathers nearly pure 

 white ; but, on the other hand, another specimen, obtained in Germany, was almost equally white, and 

 had the outer web of the outer tail-feather on the one side entirely of this colour, with one black spot about 

 as big as a pin's head, and the outer web of the tail-feather on the other side also white, with two small 

 spots. The species described by Professor Baird as P. dorsalis, only known from a single specimen 

 obtained in the Rocky Mountains, may yet turn out to be the present bird. Dresser has compared the 

 plate in the 'Birds of North America' with numerous Siberian specimens in the possession of M. Jules 

 Verreaus ; and the latter eminent ornithologist, as also Mr. D. Gr. Elliot, agreed that the American 

 species could not be specifically separated. In the absence of specimens it is difficult to determine this 

 question satisfactorily; and it must be noticed that Professor Sundevall classes it with the other 

 American species, all of which are distinguished by having only two, or at most four, central tail- 

 feathers entirely black. A reexamination of the type specimen is desirable. 



The present species, which is easily distinguished from the other European Woodpeckers by its 

 having only three toes, is chiefly met with in the northern parts of the Continent, whence it 

 ranges across Siberia. In the central and southern portions of Europe it only occurs in moun- 

 tainous localities, and becomes less frequent towards the shores of the Mediterranean. 



Its occurrence in Great Britain is very doubtful, as will be seen by the following extract 

 from Mr. Eobert Gray's 'Birds of the West of Scotland:' — "In Donovan's 'British Birds' a 

 figure is given of the Three-toed Woodpecker on plate 143, vol. vi., and in the accompanying 

 letterpress it is stated that a specimen of the bird had been ' lately shot in the north of Scotland ;' 

 upon the authority of which the species was inserted among the migratory visitants to the 

 British islands. No other specimen appears to have occurred since Donovan's time." We need 

 scarcely notice the reputed breeding of the species in the Isle of Arran, as Dr. Martin Barry is 

 stated to have found it : the responsibility of this statement rests upon the author of the above- 

 named gentleman's sale-catalogue, than whom it would be difficult to find a more untrustworthy 

 authority. 



Mr. Kobert Collett, writing on its geographical distribution in Norway, states that it breeds 

 tolerably abundantly in the thickly wooded and subalpine portions of Eastern Norway, from 

 Smaalehnene up to the Russian frontier, especially in Osterdalen, Gudbrandsdalen, and Valders, 

 and northward into the Polar Circle. Westward of the fells it is rarer ; it breeds at Nses iron- 

 works, in Nedenses, but along the west coast has only been procured at Bergen. On the fell- 

 sides it is common up into the birch region. Near Christiania it is rare, but occurs in the 

 autumn, and is sometimes seen in the market amongst Thrushes that have been snared. It 

 remains there during the winter, but has not been found breeding in that locality ; still it cannot 

 breed far off, as Professor Rasch shot some young birds, scarcely fledged, in July, between 

 Grefsenaasen and Nittedalen. Messrs. F. and P. Godman procured an immature specimen near 

 Kop Vaud. Sommerfeldt includes it in his list of birds found at the Varanger Fjord as an 

 occasional visitor. According to Professor Sundevall it is found in Scandinavia as high north as 

 the forest growth exists, or up into Finmark in 70° N. lat., but does not range far south, and is 

 seldom found regularly below Norrland. Nilsson records it as tolerably abundant in some parts 



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