LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 169 



those selected by the Green Woodpecker — woods, parks, 

 pleasure-grounds, well- timbered fields and orchards. It 

 is more often seen in the slender, topmost branches, 

 however, than its larger ally, and from its shy, retiring 

 disposition, is very often overlooked. It most probably 

 pairs for life, although it is generally met with alone 

 after the breeding season is over, and either returns to 

 the same nesting-place yearly, or makes a new home 

 near the old one. It is not at all social during the 

 nesting period, each pair keeping to one particular 

 haunt. The nest is in a hole in a tree, either of a 

 branch or the trunk, at various heights from the ground. 

 Frequently a pollard willow is selected, sometimes a 

 dead stump in the tall hedges, or a fruit tree in the 

 orchard ; at other times a hole is made in the branch of 

 a tall beech or elm. The hole is dug out by both birds, 

 and is made on a very similar plan to that adopted by 

 the Green Woodpecker, only the diameter of the shaft 

 is not more than half as much. At the bottom of the 

 hole, which may be but six inches or as much as a foot 

 in depth, a slight enlargement is made, in which the 

 eggs are deposited. No nest is provided for them, 

 beyond the wood-dust collected at the bottom. In 

 exceptional cases this Woodpecker selects a hole ready- 

 made, or enlarges and alters one to its needs. The bird 

 sits closely, and makes little attempt to leave the hole 

 until lifted from it. It is not in any way demonstrative 

 at the nest, should it only contain eggs. 



Range of egg colouration and measurement : 

 The eggs of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker are from 

 five to eight in number, six being an average clutch. 

 They are pure white and spotless, smooth, and highly 

 polished. Average measurement, 76 inch in length, by 

 •58 in breadth. Incubation, performed by both sexes, 

 lasts fourteen days, on the authority of Thienemann. 



