GOLDEN-BACKED WOODPECKER 159 



trunk. He was bobbing up and down in the little pool, 

 just as the orthodox lady bather at Margate does ; 

 but instead of clinging for dear life to the bathing- 

 machine rope the woodpecker held on to the trunk of 

 the tree. 



Presently he ran a little way up one limb of the 

 trunk, shook himself, and then jumped upon the other 

 limb. This was quite a feat, for the bird's head was 

 pointing upwards and his breast was, of course, pressed 

 close to the trunk, both before and after the leap, so 

 that the bird had to turn a complete semicircle while 

 in the air. Then, after another dip or two, the bird ran 

 up the trunk, hopped on to a branch, flew off, and was 

 soon lost to view amid the foliage of a distant tree. 



The woodpecker is not much of an aeronaut ; his 

 powers of flight are to some extent sacrificed to his tree- 

 climbing propensities. His flight has been well de- 

 scribed as " first a flutter, then a dip with closed wings." 

 But this suffices to carry him from tree to tree, and the 

 bird seems very proud of being able to fly at all, as he 

 nearly always utters his laughing scream while on the 

 wing. 



The golden-backed woodpecker lays its eggs in a 

 hole in a tree. It may either scoop out the nest itself 

 or utilize a natural hollow. The bird has enough in- 

 telligence to make use of a ready-made hole, but there 

 is a limit to its intelligence. Mr. William Jesse once 

 found some eggs laid in the hollow of a decayed branch 

 exposed to the sky ; the bird had nevertheless cut out 

 a hole on the under-side, although it was quite un- 

 necessary ! But we must not laugh at the bird for a 



