276 GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 
member of the family which regularly visits Heligoland in autumn ; 
doubtless on its migration from Scandinavia, where it breeds up to 
70° N. lat. In Russia it is common up to about 64° N. lat. ; and, 
allowing for an increase in the extent or purity of white in its 
plumage, this species can be traced to the Sea of Japan. Between 
the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean other forms are observed, 
which show in addition a tendency to develop a crimson band 
on the breast—a coloration which reaches its highest point in 
D. numidicus of North Africa ; though Continental and even British 
examples sometimes exhibit distinct signs of a red pectoral band. 
In the Canaries our northern form occurs. 
The nesting-hole, smaller than that made by the preceding species, 
is generally hacked out in a similar manner ; but, according to good 
authorities, a natural cavity in a dead branch is sometimes prolonged 
and utilized, and several holes are often cut out before the bird is 
satisfied. The 6-7 eggs, laid on the bare wood about the middle of 
May, are creamy-white in colour, and in shape rather less pyriform 
than those of the Green Woodpecker: measurements ‘98 by °75 in. 
Both sexes take part in incubation, which lasts about a fortnight. 
It has been noticed in captivity that this bird descends by a series 
of jerks with the tail downwards, but in the wild state the mode of 
progression is usually diagonally or spirally upwards. The food 
consists of insects and their larva, but in autumn the berries of 
the mountain-ash, nuts, acorns &c. are eaten. The note is a sharp 
heek or gick, and sometimes a low, reiterated ¢va, but the male often 
makes a loud vibrating noise by rapidly hammering with his bill on 
the bark of a tree. 
The male has the upper parts chiefly black ; forehead dull white ; 
cheeks and ear-coverts white; nape crimson; scapulars white ; 
wing-feathers barred with white on the outer webs ; under parts dull 
white ; vent crimson. Length 9°4 in. ; wing 5‘5in. The female is 
slightly smaller and has no red on the head. The young of both 
sexes have the crown of the head ved. In ignorance of this fact, 
a bird obtained in the Shetlands during the migration of 1861 
was supposed by Saxby to be the Middle Spotted Woodpecker, 
D. medius, and was afterwards figured by Gould as the White- 
backed Woodpecker, D. deuconotus ; but it has been pronounced by 
Prof. Newton and other authorities to be a slightly albescent 
D. major | 
An example of the American Hairy Woodpecker, D. vé/losus, is 
said to have been obtained in Yorkshire more than a century ago, 
and another near Whitby in 1849. 
