DRYOCOPUS MARTIUS.
Great Black Woodpecker.

Picus martius, Linn. Faun. Suec., p. 34.

 

niger, Briss. Orn., tom. vi. p. 21.

Dryocopus martius, Boie, Isis, 1826, OMe

Drendrocopus pinelorum, Brehm, Vog. Deutsch, p. 185; tab. 13) fio. 3.
eee aus, Brehm, ibid., p. 186.
Carbonarius martius, Kaup, Nati. Syst., jd. UBT.

Dryotomus martius, Swains. Faun. Bor.-Amer., p. 301.

Picus (Dryocopus) martius, Keys. et Blas. Wirbelth. Eur., paeone
Dryopicos martius, Malh. Mém. Acad. Nation. Metz, 1849, p. 320.
Dryopicus martius, Malh. Mon. Picid., tom. i. p. 31, tab. 10. Hess Sy One

Tur Great Black Woodpecker was first described as a British bird by Latham, in\1785, on the authority of
his friend Mr. Tunstall, who informed him that it had sometimes been seen in Devonshire. During the
interval between that date and 1869, no less than thirty notices of its occurrence in various Evglish counties
have been recorded; and every ornithologist of repute, from Montagu to Yarrell, have included it as a
conspicuous species in our avifauna ; besides which many other persons—collectors, sportsmen, and country
gentlemen—have stated to me, and, doubtless, to many others, that, in such and such a wood, on some
named day, they had seen a Great Black Woodpecker, one or more affirming that they bad followed the
bird from tree to tree without being able, from its extreme shyness, to get within shooting distance. In the
‘Field, of January 29, 1870, Mr. J. E. Harting gave a detailed account of the first twenty-five recorded
instances of the occurrence of the bird in our islaod ; and in a note with which he has recently favoured
me, he has enumerated a number of others, making a total of thirty reported instances of this bird in Great
Britain. “It is not likely,” remarks Mr. Harting, *‘ that they can a// be mistakes.”

I regret, however, that I am unable to endorse this opinion. J had hoped that so fine a Woodpecker
would have beaded our indigenous Picide ; but, of the many persons who have asserted the occurrence of
the bird, not one, I believe, has been able to verify his statement by pointing out where an authenticated
British-killed specimen is to be seen; nor, I think, can any public museum or private collection produce one.
To omit, however, from the present work a species the appearance of which in our island has been asserted
by so many respectable authorities, would scarcely be just. I therefore give a figure of it, for the purpose of
showing those who are unacquainted with the bird what it is like, and how it differs from the Greater
Spotted Woodpecker, the Jackdaw, and the Nutcracker, one or other of which has probably been mistaken

for it.

Apart from England, and even just over the North Sea, the Great Black Woodpecker is tolerably common.

In the pine-forests of Norway, Sweden, and Finmark it finds a congenial home, breeds, ae co its young.
It also inhabits Switzerland, Sicily, Turkey, Greece, the Ionian Islands, Germany, Russia, Siberia, and Japan ;
Mr. Swinhoe showed me specimens from Northern China. It is not found in
at least it is not included in Loche’s ‘ List of the Birds of Algeria’ ;
the limit of its range in a southern direction.

and, if I mistake not,
the Atlas range, in North Africa ;

consequently the European shores of the Mediterranean Is |
the bird as observed in Sweden I take the liberty of making

a lengthy extract, nearly in the author’s words :—‘ Towards the latter end of Mey 1peG ss es Mr. Snel
«I happened to be staying with a Dane, the overlooker of a large forest belonging to Con ie len
be heard that I had come all the way from England to find the ‘ Bo’ of the Spilkraka Ges martius), he sent
for his chief woodman to inquire what chance there was of getting one. The mopdman ead he had Feeguerank
seen birds throughout the spring, and had in former vate noticed their ‘ Bo,’ but ih it ae ene vase
high that nobody could get at it; that this year a pair of birds were known to frequent the edge oF a
ant, and that if we would
This was cheering intellige
f sprace-firs, very uninteresting in appearance and
clearing (a square of about 1000 yards),
all spruce and to fly towards the far

From one of the most interesting accounts of

accompany him early the next morning we might

clearing about four miles dist
ae nee, and caused us to make an early

possibly discover the object of our search.

i roug s wood o

start. Our way lay chiefly through a monotonous we a

: ee. ee

apparently destitute of any species of bird. But on crossing .

ilkra sli i ay from the upper part of a

a Spilkraka was seen to slip quietly away ae

‘ , where he uttere and disappeared. It took us a very short time
corner of the square, where

1g space in the direction he had gone,

da single warning cry
| oe and it speedily became manifest that the object
to cross the remainil