A Curious Instance of Scansorial Instinct. 47 



records an observation of this species, a single specimen, 

 seen by him on an oak tree in the meadows of Belmont, 

 near the former town. He gives substantial verification 

 of it. 



There can be no doubt, therefore, of the Great Black 

 Woodpecker occasionally visiting the Welsh bordering 

 shires, if it be not a permanent resident in them. 

 Against this there is the fact that although these shires 

 abound in woods few of them show timber of lai'ge 

 growth ; or where it is large the tracts of it are of limited 

 extent. And it is well known that this species specially 

 affects the heart and solitude of the thick forest, rarely 

 coming out into the open; while with the other three it 

 is different. In this retiring habit of the Great Black 

 Woodpecker I note a resemblance between it and the 

 two American species most nearly akin to it in size as in 

 colour, both being black. I mean the Ivory-billed {Picus 

 principalis) and the Black or "log-cock" (P. pileatus). 

 These always keep to the interior of the grand primaeval 

 woods ; their loud tapping — from which they have 

 derived the fanciful name of "carpenter birds," in 

 Spanish America, carpinteros — ^and their still louder call- 

 note, oft startling the traveller, as he rides silently, along 

 some lone, shadowy aisle of the forest. And on the 

 other side of the Atlantic, just as on this, the smaller 

 and spotted, or mottled speciesi — of which there are 

 several — more affect open woods, some of them frequent- 

 ing orchards, and nesting near the homestead. 



Taking our English woodpeckers, not in the order of 

 size, but scarcity, one or other of the two so-called 

 "Spotted" species claims attention next, though it is 

 diflBcult to determine which. Both may be pronounced 

 rare birds, and are so compared with the Green Wood- 



