GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 1 83 



round that it may miss no crevice which contains a 

 tit-bit. Sometimes it will descend head first, exploring 

 the small branches as well as the trunk, before it 

 passes on to another tree. 



It is no easy bird to attempt to rear. It cannot be 

 kept in a wooden cage, added to which it has an ob- 

 jectionable smell. A very interesting account of the 

 taming of this bird is recorded in the Zoologist for 

 1883, p. 473. In this account it is said that its note 

 resembled the cry of " ack," much like the cry of a 

 young Jackdaw. It was very shy of strangers. 



In plumage the prevalent colours of the upper parts 

 are black and white. The under parts are huffish 

 white, shading into scarlet beneath the tail. There is 

 a scarlet patch on the nape. The Great Spotted 

 Woodpecker builds no nest. Its eggs are laid about 

 the middle of May, and are deposited in a hole in a 

 tree. This hole is nearly always bored by the bird, 

 though occasionally it has used a ready-made one. It 

 is most frequently made in a decayed part of the trunk, 

 or where a dead branch has been blown off, and is from 

 a foot to a foot and a half deep. 



The eggs, five to seven, sometimes eight, are plain 

 creamy white. They are considerably larger than the 

 eggs of the Wryneck and Lesser Spotted Wood- 

 pecker, and smaller than those of the Green Wood- 

 pecker. The eggs of the Kingfisher may be dis- 

 tinguished from them by their roundness. They most 

 closely resemble the eggs of the Dipper, but are 

 generally duller and less highly polished. 



