168



J. Delacour — Wagler's Woodpecker



take some vegetables out of a kitchen garden, the female caught her

head in the fence and was found hanging and lifeless. The male shortly

after broke a wing which we amputated, and left him in an enclosure.

During the War the remaining pair ceased to breed. Domestic

differences were tolerated till this spring, when the female gave the

lie to Messrs. Hume and Blaauw, and flew off to the one-winged Crane

in the enclosure. The pair unfortunately nested close to a public

footpath, where they were constantly disturbed and the eggs did not

hatch.


Yet one other tragedy occurred. Two Manchurian Cranes were

hatched, and when about 2 months old one was seen to kill the other.

Altogether the War has not improved the morals of the Woburn

Crane world.


WAGLER’S WOODPECKER (MELANERPES


H^AGLERI^ Tabin & Goodman)


By J. Delacour

(With Plate.)


Since seeing Mr. Astley’s wonderful Yellow-naped Woodpecker,

I was longing to keep a bird of this family as a cage bird. I thought

that there was very little hope of ever being able to do so when

M. Fontana, the well-known bird dealer of Bordeaux, wrote me some

time ago that he had just received a rare Woodpecker from Central

America, asking whether I would care to accept it as a present.

Nobody will doubt my answer, and a few days, afterwards I received

a lovely bird in very good condition. M. Fontana wrote that this

specimen had been shipped at Carthagena in Colombia with two other

birds of the same species. Unfortunately they were put into a wooden

cage, and during the voyage two of them got out of the cage, which was

naturally broken by them, flew away, and probably fell into the ocean.


As soon as he arrived at Cleres the Woodpecker was put into a

wired cage, in which several logs and pieces of rotten wood had been

placed for him. Various kinds of food were provided for the bird, but

he hardly touched the insectile mixture and meat, but ate greedily

some mealworms and ant cocoons. The food he is most fond of is



