GREEN WOODPECKER. 459 



Generally solitary in its habits, spring is commonly well 

 advanced before it is seen paired. Then some familiar 

 haunt is usually chosen, and by careful watching, for it is a 

 very shy bird, the particular tree intended for the nest may 

 often be discovered. This is ordinarily an elm, ash, or 

 poplar, but by no means unfrequently a horse-chestnut, syca- 

 more or silver-fir, and rarely a beech or an oak — the harder 

 woods being almost always avoided — while a trunk or branch 

 that is rotten at the heart is commonly selected. Several 

 incisions are often commenced and abandoned for no appa- 

 rent cause ; but when the work is begun in earnest, it is 

 steadily prosecuted, and sometimes with great speed, the 

 birds relieving each other by turns. The first incision is 

 vertical, but it is soon widened until a circular hole is cut 

 out, almost as truly as if traced by compasses or bored by a 

 drill. This hole runs horizontally till the heart is reached, 

 and then turning abruptly downwards is continued to the 

 depth perhaps of a foot.* At the bottom it is somewhat 

 enlarged, and there, without bedding of any sort, save a few 

 chips that have not been thrown out, the eggs from four to 

 seven in number are laid. These are of a pure, translucent, 

 glossy whitef, slightly pyriform in shape, and measure from 

 1-4 to 1-25 by from -91 to -85 in. But it not unfrequently 

 happens that some other bird, particularly a Starling as 

 before stated (page 232), will seize on the hole when com- 

 pleted, and though a struggle, lasting perhaps for some days, 

 is the result, victory nearly always rests with the invader, 

 who by carrying in a few sticks, straws or other furniture, 

 renders the chamber at once unfit for its constructor. The 

 Woodpecker thereupon gives up possession, and thus her 



* It has been said that the birds will carry to a distance the chips made in 

 cutting the hole ; but in the Editor's experience this is never done, and he has 

 always found the easiest way of discovering a nest is by observing the foot of each 

 tree in the presumed locality, that which contains it being invariably recognizable 

 by the chips strewn on the ground. 



f Eggs stained either by the sap of the tree, or perhaps by some fungoid 

 growth, have been frequently found (Zool. pp. 2229, 2258, 2301, 2923, 6328), 

 and are very beautiful objects, some being highly coloured. Hardy mentions a 

 nest of green eggs (Annuaire Normand. vii. p. 288, note) brought to him with 

 the mother, but one cannot help supposing that they may have been Starlings'. 



