352 GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 
occurred twice, one specimen, killed in the 
vicinity of Dublin, being in the museum of the 
Dublin Royal Society. On the Continent it 
seems more abundant, but in some parts it is 
probably partially migratory. Of its extra Euro- 
pean range we do not know the limits, the 
Himalayan bird so closely allied to it being 
apparently distinct.* The habits of this bird are 
strictly arboreal ; it prefers, we believe, extensive 
forests, rather than a more woodland country; 
feeds chiefly on insects, but often also on seeds 
and nuts ;f and we were informed by a gentleman 
long resident in Russia, that the cones of the 
pines were opened for the seeds, and for this 
purpose they were carried by the bird to some 
particular spot, and placed in the cleft of a tree, 
to be held forth for dissection ; that piles of the 
cones, after being opened, might be seen in 
various parts of the forests at the roots of trees, 
and that one near his own garden was a favourite 
spot where the birds were often observed at 
work. 
A male shot in Dumfriesshire in winter, had 
the forehead yellowish white, the plumes cover- 
ing the nostrils black ; the plumage above gene- 
rally of a deep black, relieved by a narrow band 
or spot on the occiput of arterial blood red, and 
various patches of white, of which the space 
around the eyes, the auriculars, a patch on each 
side of the nape, and the scapular covers, are the 
See Orn. Illust. plate 116. 
t Temminck. 
