Locality. 
Food. 
Nest, &c. 
106 ZYGODACTYLI. PICUS. Wooprecker. 
Great-spotted W oodpecker.—Picus major, Linn. 
PLATE 88. Fig. 2. 
Picus major, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 176. 17.—Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 436. sp. 17.— 
Faun. Suec. No. 100.—Zath. Ind. Ornith. 1. p. 228. 13. 
Picus varius major, Raii, Syn. p. 43. A. 4.—Will. p. 94. t. 21.—Briss. 4. 
p. 34. 13. 
Le Pic Varié ou Pic Epeiche, Buff: Ois. v. 7. p. 57.—Id. Pl. Enl. 196. and 
595. male and female.—Temm. Man. d’Orxnith. v. 1. p. 595. 
Die Bunt-specht, Bechst. Naturg. Deut. v. 2. p. 1022.—_Meyer, Tasschenb. 
peut. v. 1. p. 121.—/d. Vég. Deut. v. 1. t. male and female.—Fisch. t. 36. 
male. 
Greater-spotted Woodpecker, Br. Zool. 1. No. 85.—Arct. Zool. 2. No. 162. 
—Will. (Ang.) p. 137. t. 21.—Lewin’s Br. Birds, t. 47.—Lath. Syn. v. 2. 
p- 564. 12._Jd. Supp. p. 107.—Mont. Ornith. Dict.—Puit. Cat. Dorset. 
p- 6.—Don, Br. Birds, 2. t. 37.—Bewick’s Br. Birds, v. 1. t. 118. 
Although not so numerous as the preceding, species, the 
Spotted Woodpecker is pretty generaliy diffused through 
the woody districts of our island. I have seen it in Scot- 
land, on the banks of the River Spey, and amid the wild 
scenery of the Dee. In its habits it greatly resembles the 
green woodpecker.—It feeds on the different insects that are 
found in the interstices of the bark of trees, but, according 
to TrmMinck, does not strictly confine itself to them, as it 
eats also nuts, and seeds of various kinds. It rarely de- 
scends to the ground in search of food, or makes an attack 
upon ant-hills, like the former species. In the spring, and 
during the breeding-season, it very frequently makes the jar- 
ring noise, mentioned in the foregoing description ; and Mon- 
rasu relates that a female bird, which he found some difii- 
culty in driving from her nest, immediately flew to the de- 
cayed branch of a neighbouring tree, and began that sound ; 
which was answered by the male from a distant part of the 
wood, who very soon joined her, and both continued to make 
these vibrations. The most sonorous branches, or those in a 
particular stage of decay, are always chosen for the purpose.— 
The eggs of this bird, to the number of four or five, and of 
a clear bluish-white, are laid in a deep hole, in the trunk or 
large branch of some decaying tree, which it excavates for 
