GREEN WOODPECKER. 369 



Woodpecker differs very little in its habits and mode of nidifieation from 

 its near allies. It is intermediate in size between the Lesser and Greater 

 Spotted Woodpeckers^ and may at once be distinguished from both of them 

 by the absence of the black moustachial line extending from the base of 

 the lower mandible. 



The White-backed Woodpecker (P. leucono'tus) was erroneously included 

 in the British list and figured in Gould's ' Birds of Great Britain ' on the 

 authority of a specimen said to have been shot on one of the Shetland 

 Islands in September 1861. I have carefully compared this specimen with 

 birds of the year of the Great Spotted Woodpecker from Heligoland, and 

 have no doubt whatever that it is an example of immature P. major in 

 which the nape and the margins of the primary-coverts are slate-grey 

 instead of black — an accidental variety which bears no special resemblance 

 to the young of the White-backed Woodpecker. The question is fully 

 discussed by Professor Newton ('Zoologist/ 1881, p. 399). 



The claim of the Three-toed Woodpecker to be admitted into the British 

 list rests solely upon an example said by Donovan to have been " lately shot 

 in the north of Scotland '' (Brit. B. vi. pi. 143, 1809). It is very remark- 

 able that this species does not occur in Scotland, as it is resident throughout 

 Northern Europe and the whole of Siberia up to the Arctic circle, and 

 even in the mountainous districts of Central and Southern Europe. 



Three other Woodpeckers, all of them American species, have been 

 included amongst the birds that occasionally visit this country, but the 

 claims of each are very doubtful. The first of these, the Hairy Wood- 

 pecker [Picus villosus) , was recorded by Latham (Gen. Syn. Suppl. p. 108), 

 who stated that this species had then lately been found in the north of 

 England, and that he had seen a pair which had been shot near Halifax 

 in Yorkshire by a Mr. Bolton. Another example is said to have been 

 killed near Whitby in 1849 (Higgins, 'Zoologist,' 1849, p. 2496, and Bird, 

 'Zoologist,' 1849, p. 2527). The Hairy Woodpecker, in one of its several 

 forms, is a resident in the wooded portions of North America, as far 

 north as Sitka, and as far south as Mexico and Central America. It is 

 said to frequent orchards and cultivated grounds, and to be less shy than 

 the other species. Its habits in other respects and its nidifieation and the 

 colour of its eggs are similar to those of its congeners. It may readily 

 be distingtiished from the Great Spotted Woodpecker, the only species 

 in this country with which it is likely to be confused, by the absence of 

 the scarlet on the under tail-coverts. 



Of the second species, the Downy Woodpecker (Picus pubescens), a single 

 example is said to have been obtained at Bloxworth in Dorsetshire (Rev. 

 O. P. Cambridge, ' Zoologist,' 1859, p. 6444)*. Its geographical distribu- 



* The occurrence of an example of this species, said to have been shot in an orchard 

 near Elbeuf in France, appears to be well authenticated (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1881, p. 453). 

 VOL. II. 2 B 



