42 A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



and 27.5 x 17.2. Breeding -season. — Probably normally about May 

 20 in south England and a week or two later in north, but many 

 pairs are dispossessed by Starlings and cannot breed till early June. 

 Incubation. — Details of period lacking. Single brooded. 



Food. — Mainly larvae of wood -boring insects : coleoptera (Bhagium, 

 etc. ; also Hippodamia mutabilis) ; lepidoptera {Zeuzera cesculi, 

 Cossus ligniperda, etc.), and probably also hymenoptera. Spiders 

 also freely taken ; and quite exceptionally, young birds, probably 

 Blue Tits. Beech -mast, hazel-nuts and pips of crab apples taken 

 in autumn. 



Distribution. — Confined to British Isles. England and Wales. — 

 Resident. Fairly distributed in wooded parts, but scarce Lanes, 

 and rare Westmorland and Cumberland, and very scarce north of 

 Durham. Scotland. — Became extinct about middle of nineteenth 

 century, but since 1887, when bred in Berwick., has gradually 

 increased in south Scotland and is now fairly well spread, but 

 very scarce, though increasing, in south-eastern half as well as Dum- 

 fries., and has nested since 1907 as far north as Dunkeld (Perth. )■ 

 on western side of Perthshire in 1917 and Loch Lomond 1912, and 

 even once in Aberdeen (1903). Several seen in summer 1919 and 

 1920 Loch Fyne district.* 



DRYOBATES MINOR 



224. Dryobates minor comminutus (Hart.) — THE BRITISH 

 LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 



Dendrocopus minor comminutus Hartert, Brit. B., i, p. 221 (1907 — 



England. Type : Wingrave in Bucks.). 



Dendrocopus minor (Linnaeus), Yarrell, 11, p. 477 ; Saunders, p. 277. 



Description. — Adult male. Winter. — Fore-head brownish-white,, 

 feathers tipped brown to dark brown ; crown crimson mottled 

 whitish, basal portion of feathers being dull white and tips crimson, 

 narrow and somewhat pointed ; nape and upper part of mantle 

 black ; scapulars, lower mantle and back white barred black, each 

 feather being white with penultimate black bar ; rump and upper 

 tail-coverts black ; lores brownish-white ; stripe over eye black ; 

 stripe from behind eye, along upper part of ear-coverts and extend- 

 ing to wide patch at base of sides of neck white ; ear -co verts 

 brown ; moustachial stripe extending to wide patch below ear- 

 coverts to shoulders black ; chin brownish -white ; throat and rest 

 of under-parts brown, sides of breast and flanks finely streaked 

 black (sides of upper-breast more widely streaked) ; lower flanks 



* Many winter occurrences of stray birds in north England and north and 

 west Scotland are no doubt referable to the northern form, as are probably the- 

 examples recorded from Ireland. 



