2 78 LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 
and Turkey, yet in other parts of the south it is either comparatively 
rare or has been overlooked. There also it is to a considerable extent 
a migrant, but in the Azores, strange to say, it is a resident. 
The nest-hole is often made in the highest branches of poplars 
and other tall trees, but sometimes at very moderate elevations in 
oaks, chestnut- and fruit-trees, hawthorns, or pollard willows. The 
6-7 eggs, laid about the middle of May, resemble those of the 
Wryneck ; but their texture is more ivory-like and their colour more 
creamy-white, while they are slightly smaller: measurements ‘75 by 
*57 in. The food consists almost entirely of timber-haunting 
insects. The usual note is an often repeated eek, but the male 
further produces a vibrating noise like that made by the preceding 
species. In flight and general habits this bird hardly differs from 
its congener, except perhaps in its extreme restlessness. 
The adult male has the forehead buff; crown of the head pale 
crimson ; nape and lower cheek-stripe black; cheeks white; upper 
parts black, broadly barred with white; central tail-feathers black, 
the rest black barred with white; under parts buffish-white, with 
black streaks on the flanks.. Length 6 in. ; wing 3°7 in. In the female 
the crown is whitish instead of crimson, and the under parts are 
more striated. The young male has a crimson crown, as in the adult; 
but in the young female only the fore part of the head is ‘red, 
while the black and white chequerings of the back are less pure. 
The Rev. O. Pickard-Cambridge has a specimen of the North 
American Downy Woodpecker, D. pubescens, supposed to be a bird 
which he shot at Bloxworth in Dorset, in December 1836; and an 
example of this species has also been killed near Elbeuf, in Nor- 
mandy :—American ‘Spotted Woodpeckers’ are, however, known 
to have been brought to Europe and turned loose more than a 
century ago (Cf Prof. Newton in ‘Yarrell,’ 4th Ed., ii. p. 485). 
An American Golden-winged Woodpecker, Colaptes auratus, is said 
to have been shot at Amesbury, Wilts, in 1836. As regards the 
Black Woodpecker, Picus martius, Mr. J. H. Gurney and Prof. 
Newton have, I think, conclusively shown that in the British 
Islands there is not one of its numerous recorded occurrences 
sufficiently authenticated ; while a bird undoubtedly shot in York- 
shire on September 8th 1897, may be suspected of being one of 
the individuals liberated by the late Lord Lilford. Donovan’s 
statement in 1809, that an example of the Three-toed Woodpecker, 
Picoides tridactylus, had “lately” been shot in the North of Scotland 
is unsubstantiated. 
