/;/ the Neighbourhood of Salisbury. 



305 



its food, and for licking up the ants and eggs from the ant-hills, 

 which is their favorite diet. The young birds of the year are 

 curiously mottled and speckled, very different from the old birds, 

 and I once saw a very curious pair, which were mottled all over with 

 flakes of yellowish-white, which g>ave them a curious piebald appear- 

 ance, but they do not generally vary much in their plumage. 



Picus Major. " The Great Spotted Woodpecker/-' This is, cer- 

 tainly the most uncommon of the three varieties of Woodpeckers 

 that are generally seen in England. I have only seen them two or 

 three times since I have been in these parts — on one occasion being 

 startled by its clear single note, which, being quite an unusual sound 

 to me, made me at once look up, when I saw one of these birds 

 riving directly over my head in the direction of Longford Park. A 

 pair used to breed regularly just outside the park, in the village of 

 Bodenham, but they have not been noticed there lately, I believe ; 

 and at Hurdcott their nests are always to be found in the woods, 

 although it is ever a matter of patience to reach the eggs, if wanted, 

 as they can generally only be secured with the aid of saw and hatchet. 

 It has often been a matter of dispute, as to whether there are more 

 than two kinds of Spotted Woodpeckers inhabiting England ; and, 

 until lately, I certainly thought that there were but two — the varie- 

 ties Picus major and minor, the Greater and Lesser Spotted ; but 

 last year I received a bird which certainly alters my opinion, and I 

 now believe there is a second and distinct variety of the larger- 

 spotted species. This bird was killed near Basingstoke, in the early 

 summer of 1877, being apparently of full growth, and fully feathered, 

 though evidently a young bird ; and there are many distinctive marks 

 about it, in which it certainly differs from Picus major. It is evi- 

 dently a male bird ; but the crimson on the head, instead of forming 

 a patch on the nape of the neck, as in P. major, covers the whole 

 forehead, as in P. minor ; and surely no future moult would cause 

 this colour to move from the crown of the head and settle itself 

 in a distinct patch on the nape of the neck. It is, besides, a size 

 smaller, though decidedly much bigger than P. minor, and the beak 

 is not so thick at the base or so long as in P. major. The general 

 markings are very similar to the larger species ; I could detect 

 VOL. xviii. — no. liv. z 



