GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 351 
Note. — Plumage chiefly black and white, dis- 
posed above in patches or bars. 
Europe, Asia, America. 
Great Spotted Woodpecker, Dendroco- 
pus major, Swainson. — Picus major, Linn. — 
Greater Spotted Woodpecker of British authors. 
— This species is the only representative of the 
Picidce, which extends to the northern part of 
our island, and it is there of rare occurrence. 
The unfrequency, indeed, of all the specimens of 
British Woodpeckers, particularly in the northern 
parts of Britain, prevents us from giving anj r 
account of them from observation, but so far as 
we can learn from the works and information of 
others, the present species is most common in 
some of the southern counties of England where 
it breeds ; as we proceed northward it appears to 
be partially migratory, and in Northumberland, 
Mr Selby observes, scarcely a year passes without 
some of these birds being obtained in the months 
of October and November. This also accords 
with our own observations, of a few individuals 
which we have known to have been killed in 
Dumfries and Roxburghshires, and which were 
obtaiued at these seasons. Mr Selby also men- 
tions having seen it on the bauks of the Dee and 
Spey ; we are not aware of its occurrence farther 
north, and never met with it in any of our excur- 
sions in the Highlands. In Ireland, on the autho- 
rity of Mr Thompson, it is only recorded to have 
