14 
allen’s naturalist’s library. 
Ob. Mr. Hargitt considers that specimens from the Ussuri 
River in Eastern Siberia, and from the island of Yezo, cannot 
be separated from D. minor, though he admits that individuals 
from the last-named locality are not typical. The same 
authority states that from the Southern Urals, “across Siberia 
north of about 55° N. lat. into Kamtchatka and Bering 
Island,” the place of D. minor is taken by D. pipra, a species 
which differs from D. minor in being purer white below and 
in having scarcely any streaks or spots on the under tail- 
coverts, while the black bars on the lower back and rump 
are scarcely discernible. In the Caucasus another species, 
D. quadrifasciatus, replaces D. minor. Little is known of this 
species, which is said to show only four, instead of five, white 
bars on the wing, when the latter is closed. A very distinct 
form, D. danfordi, is found in Asia Minor, easily recog- 
nised by the black line of the moustache being directed 
upwards behind the ear-coverts and joining the black of the 
occiput. 
Habits This species is more often to be observed, at least 
in the south of England, than any of the three English Wood- 
peckers, and it differs a good deal in its habits from the Great 
Spotted Woodpecker. In flight, as in size, it much more re- 
sembles the Nuthatch, and its note is a sort of compromise 
between that of the latter species and that of a Wryneck. 
In fact its cry, when heard in winter, is somewhat startling 
from its similarity to the ^Vryneck’s call, until one remembers 
that the last-named bird is far away in the south, and that 
the oft-repeated note can only be that of the Lesser Spotted 
Woodpecker. It certainly descends more often to the lower 
branches of the big trees than does D. major, and is not 
un frequently seen hanging under a hough or climbing up the 
smaller twigs of a large elm or poplar. Its nest has also been 
found at low elevations, but as far as my own experience goes, 
the nest is a difficult one to obtain, and near Cookham in 
Berkshire, where the bird is by no means uncommon, the nest 
is exceptionally difficult to reach, as it is usually placed in n 
high and rotten branch of a poplar tree. At times it descends 
to the orchards, and the late Mr. John Henry Gurney told mC 
of a pair which frequented the orchard in a house where he 
