P IC A R IjE. P IC ID J5 .
D endbocopus majob (Linnaeus.)*
GREATER SPOTTED WOODPECKER.
Picus major.
Dendrocopus, K. L. Koch\ .—Beak about as long as the head, hard, straight,
pyramidal; upper mandible with a ridge on each side, running obliquely forwards
from the nostril to a shallow groove, parallel to and near the tomia which are
angular and inflected ; lower mandible equal to the upper, and both ending
abruptly, the gonys much nearer the base than the tip. Nostrils basal, oval,
covered with hair-like feathers directed forwards. Tongue capable of protrusion,
beset at the tip with homy barbs. Wings moderate ; the first primary very
short, the fourth longest. Tail of twelve graduated rectrices, the outer pair very
short and overlying the next, which with the rest are pointed and have stiff
decurved shafts, with hard webs. Tarsi strong, slightly feathered in front above ;
toes two before and two behind, the fourth which is turned backwards much
longer than the third ; claws, strongly hooked, grooved and very sharp.
This species, though generally less common than the last, is
in some places not ra re; but hardly anywhere can it he called
* Picus major, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 176 (1766).
+ Dendrocopos (errore) Kcch, Säugthiere und "Vögel Baierns, p. 72 (18] 6).
numerous, while there is even greater difficulty than with
the former in defining its topographical distribution, and an
absolute impossibility of accounting for the same. It seems
seldom, if ever, to inhabit precisely the same spots as the
Green Woodpecker, yet its haunts are very varied in character—
large oak-woods, hedgerows where ashes form the
prevalent timber-, holts or small plantations of poplars and
alders, and the lines of pollard-willows that skirt so many
rivers. But at times stray birds appear, and occasionally
stop for a while, in wooded districts of almost any sort. In
many of its habits—its solitary and mistrustful disposition,
its mode of flight and of climbing—it closely resembles its
larger relative; but it usually affects trees of smaller
growth, and more frequently alights and seeks its food
on the upper branches than on the trunk, and, indeed,
would seem sometimes to sit crossways on a bough after
the usual fashion of birds. It is rarely seen on the ground,
for it does not make ants its prey; but, shy as it is, will
readily enter gardens and orchards in quest of cherries,
plums and other fruit, being a somewhat general feeder.
Yet insects unquestionably form its chief sustenance, except
during the season that it can get nuts, acorns, perhaps
beechmast, the seeds of firs and berries of the mountain-ash.
Like the preceding, this bird has several names in English.
Setting aside those by which it is well known in books, it is
very generally called the Pied Woodpecker, and more locally
the French Pie, Wood-Pie, Spickel (possibly a diminutive of
Speight) as well as Hickwall and Witwall, which it has in
common with the other British Woodpeckers.
Confining itself almost entirely to the higher branches of
trees, and having no cry but an occasional quet, quet, or
gick, gick with, at intervals, a low tra, tra, tra, tra, this,
bird frequently escapes observation. Yet in spring, and
sometimes at other seasons, it has the habit of producing an
outburst of noise that is far-reaching and attractive of the most
incurious attention. This is commonly thought to be made
by the bird putting the point of its bill into a crack in the
branch of a tree—an erroneous belief of which more will be
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