HAIRY WOODPECKER.
Picas viliosus, Lnmsus. Gm e l i n.
Pines—A bird that makes holes in trees, supposed to be the
Woodpecker. Viliosus—Hairy.
I AM here aho indebted to W. F. W. Bird, Esq., for a careful
collection of the different accounts of this species as a British bird,
Dr. Latham's is as follows:—'This has been met with in England, but
I have only heard of two or three instances of the circumstance; one,
in particular, communicated by the late Mr. Bolton, of Stannary, near
Halifax, Yorkshire, of a pair being shot among the old trees in the
park of Sir George Armitage, Bart., at Kirklees Hall, where they no
doubt had been bred, but the wood being cut down the succeeding
winter, the rest forsook the ground, and could not be traced further.
The above pair were presented to the late Duchess Dowager of Portlaud,
in whose collection I saw them many years since. These birds
answen d to the general description in every particular, except in not
having the red bar across the back of the head so complete, there
being only a patch of that colour on each side of the head.' So also
says Wilson.
In the fBritish Cyclopaedia,' vol. iii., page 447, it is observed, 'This
is understood to be a discursive bird, at least to a considerable extent,
for a specimen or two are reported to have made their appearance in
England: and either it, or a species very similar, has been found in
the eastern parts of Siberia. That an American Woodpecker should
rind its way to Siberia is by no means unlikely; coining to England,
however, is a different matter.' The writer of the above docs not
seem to have calculated that though the difficulty may have been
great for a Woodpecker to cross the Atlantic, yet that having got,
on his own shewing, to Siberia, this 'overland route' removes the said
difficulty at once; and Whitby being on our north-east coast, is in
favour of the supposition that this course may have been followed by