248 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
as follows ;—“ January, ants; February, worms and 
erubs of ants; March, slugs, beetles and grubs of 
ants; April, ants and worms; May, red ants and 
grubs of wasps; June, bees and ants; July, red 
ants; August, red ants and worms; September, ants 
and worms; October, grubs of ants; November, 
grubs of ants and bees; December, ants.” This 
bird seems occasionally to vary its food, as oats and 
the remains of acorns have been found in its 
stomach. * 
The eggs of the Green Woodpecker—this 
species is said to make no nest—are always 
placed in a hole in a tree, which the bird excavates 
either partly or entirely for itself: on this account it 
has often been accused of doing much mischief to 
trees, but this accusation appears to be wrong, as the 
tree chosen is always one the interior of which is al- 
ready more or less decayed, although it may show 
no signs of this outwardly. Mr. Hewitson, in his 
“Notes on the Ornithology of Norway,’ published 
in the ‘Magazine of Zoology and Botany,’ says, 
“Of the Green Woodpecker we saw several near one 
of the churches, in the steeple of which (being of 
wood) they had bored several holes in which to de- 
posit their eggs.” So it appears that it is not to 
living wood only that the Green Woodpecker resorts 
for nesting purposes. Yarrell says he has known 
* § Zoologist’ for 1865, p. 9468. 
