PLATE CXLIII. 



The Northern Three-toed Woodpecker is an inhabitant of the 

 colder climates of Europe, as Sweden, Lapland, and Ruflia, as far as 

 the Don river. Towards the fouth it extends to AuHria and Swit- 

 zerland, in the laft of which it appears to be moft frequent, the fpecies 

 delighting in the higheil mountainous fituations. The fpecies, 

 though fo widely diffufed, is not common, and in Britain parti-cularly 

 is very rare. A folitary individual of this kind was lately fhot in 

 the north of Scotland, upon the authority of which the fpecies is 

 inferted among the migratory vifitants of the Britifh ifles. 



In point of fize, this bird rather exceeds the greater fpotted wood- 

 pecker in bulk, and meafures in length nine inches : the female is 

 the fize of the male, and refembles it in every refpe8;, except in the 

 colour of the crown^ which in the male is yellow, and in the female 

 white.- Should the fouthern three-toed woodpecker prove to be a 

 variety of this fpecies, as is generally believed, this is the only threes 

 toed kind of woodpecker at prefent known, the reft of the genus' 

 having four toes, two forward, and two behind. 



PLATE 



