P. major, Lin. &c. Greater Spotted Woodpecker, Prov. Witwall. Varied with black and white ; back of the head and vent red. Female without red on the hind-head. Weight about two ounces and three quarters, length nine inches, and extent of wing between thirteen and fourteen inches. The bill is dusky, and an inch and a quarter long; and the irides are reddish-brown. Inhabits most parts of Europe, and is also found in Siberia and about As trachan. It is less common in England than the green species, to which it is much allied in habits and manners, except that it more rarely descends to the ground ; but it creeps, with wonderful facility and in all directions, on the branches of trees, and is so very shy and wary, as to be with difficulty aimed at ; for if it perceive a person in the neighbourhood, it instantly skulks behind a bough, eyeing the stranger all the while, and regulating its mo tions so as to be constantly disguised front him. It re sides in the woods in the summer season, but may fre quently be seen in gardens and orchards in winter, picking its food from the fruit trees. It strikes on trees with great loudness and violence ; nestles at about twenty feet above the ground, in a hole of its own excavation, in a tree, without any arrangement of soft materials, except of the powder of the rotten wood; and lays four or five glossy white eggs, from which, or her young, the darn is not easily detached, as she will sometimes rather suffer her self to be taken than abandon her charge. Both sexes utter the loud and discordant noise to which we have alluded in our notice of the green species. The medius of Linne is the young of the present species.
P. minor, Lin. &c. Lesser spotted woodpecker, Prov. Hickwall and Crank-bird. Varied with black and white, crown red, vent testaceous. The female has no red on the head ; and the parts which are black in the male are in her of a washy brown. A pure white, or a cream-co loured variety, sometimes occurs. It is the smallest of the European woodpeckers, being scarcely so large as a house sparrow, about five inches and a half in length, nine in stretch of wing, and scarcely five drachms in weight. Though diffused over the north of Europe, and not uncommon in same parts of Russia and Siberia, it is of rather rare occurrence in France, and is not often met with in Britain. Specimens, however, have been obtain ed both from Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. in its habits it pretty nearly corresponds with the preceding, frequent ing woods in the fine season, but in winter drawing near houses and vineyards, yet by no means of easy capture. Like its congeners, it breeds in the holes of decayed trees, and will sometimes dispute possession with the colemouse, which it compels to relinquish its lodging.
The lesser spotted woodpecker has the same discordant note as the greater, but of a more feeble tone.
P. campestris, Vieil. Field Wren. The head crested, with black and long feathers, a white spot extending over the nostrils to beyond the eyes, and one of pure yellow• from the ears to the fore part of the neck ; all the hinder parts whitish, and transversely striped with blackish. The throat is black in the female, and marbled with white in the male. Length eleven inches two lines. This spe cies, according to Azara, never penetrates into woods, nor climbs on trees, but seizes its insect food in the open plains, which they traverse with a precipitate step on their long legs. By forcibly striking the turf once or twice with their bill, they bring forth earth-worms and insects from their retreats. They likewise attack anthills when softened by rain, and pick up the ants and their larva:. They perch occasionally, however, on the trunks or branch es of trees, or on stones, sometimes in a horizontal, some times in a vertical, and sometimes in a climbing attitude. They live in pairs or in families, and nestle at the bottom of holes, which they dig in the mud of deserted walls, on the steep banks of rivulets, &c. and the female lays from two to four eggs, of a very glossy white.
P. tridartylus, Lin. Tem. Picus hirsutus, Vieil. Picoi des hirsutus, Cult Tridartylia hirsuta, Steph. Three toed Woodpecker, Northern Three. toed Woodpecker, Downy Woodperkeret, &c. Varied with black and white ; the tarsi feathered half way down. Nearly nine inches in length, but varies both in size and markings. The female resembles the male in every respect except the colour of the crown, which in the male is yellow, and in the female white. It is an inhabitant of the colder climates of Eu rope, as Sweden, Lapland, and Russia, as far as the Don. Towards the south it extents to Austria and Switzerland, in the last of which it appears to be most frequent, the species delighting in the highest mountainous situations. Though so widely diffused, it is not common, and is ex tremely rare in this island ; but it is said to have been once shot in the north of Scotland. It is reported to occur in Hudson's Bay, and other parts of North America. It breeds in the natural holes of trees; and the female lays four or five glossy white eggs.
We might easily multiply the list of foreign woodpeck ers; but, as they differ chiefly in some unimportant points, and their habits are presumed to be very similar, their exposition would prove at once irksome, and incompatible with the limits of the present article.