It is included in Professor Ansted’s list, but marked as only occurring in Guernsey; and there are two specimens in the Museum.

81.  LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER. Picus minor, Linnaeus.  French, “Pie epeichette.”—­As may be expected, the Woodpeckers are not strongly represented in the Islands, and the present species, the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, is the only one as to the occurrence of which I can get any satisfactory evidence.

Professor Ansted, however, includes the Greater Spotted Woodpecker in his list, and marks it as occurring in Guernsey only; and there is one specimen of the Green Woodpecker, Gecinus viridis, in the Museum, but there is no note whatever as to its locality; so under these circumstances I have not thought it right to include either species.  But as to the occurrence of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, though I have not seen it myself, nor have I a Channel Island specimen, I have some more evidence; for in reply to some questions of mine on the subject, Mr. Couch wrote to me in April, 1877, “Respecting the Woodpecker, you may fully rely on the Lesser Spotted as having been shot here, four examples having passed through my hands; and writing from memory I will, as near as possible, tell you when and where they were shot.  I took a shop here in 1866.  In the month of August, 1867, there was one brought to me alive, shot in the water lanes, just under Smith’s Nursery by a young gent at the College; he wounded it in the wing.  I wanted too much to stuff it (2s. 6d.); he took the poor bird out, fixed it somewhere; he and his companions fired at it so often they blew it to atoms.  The same year, early in September, one was shot at St. Martin’s; I stuffed that for a lady:  there were four in the same tree; the day following they were not to be found.  The second week in October, the same year I had one, and stuffed it for the person who shot it out at St. Saviour’s; there were two besides in the same tree, but I had neither one myself.  In 1868, I stuffed one that was shot at St. Peter’s, in December; it was taken home the Christmas Eve.  These were all I have had, but I have heard of their being seen about since, twice or three times.”  In addition to this letter, which I have no reason to doubt, Mr. MacCulloch wrote me word—­“We have in the Museum a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, shot near Havilland Hall, in November, 1855; I saw it before it was stuffed.”  This bird was not in the Museum this year, (1878), as I looked everywhere for it, so I suppose it was moth-eaten and thrown away, like many others of the best specimens in the Museum, after the years of neglect they have been subject to.  From these letters, there can be no doubt whatever that the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker has been occasionally procured in Guernsey, and that it may be considered either an occasional autumnal visitant, remaining on into winter, or, what is more probable, a thinly-scattered resident.

It is included in Professor Ansted’s list, and marked as only occurring in Guernsey.  As above stated, the specimen formerly in the Museum no longer exists.