ABERRANT HABITS 233 



Revenons a nos moutons, therefore. The green 

 woodpecker, we have now seen, both fights and has 

 a marked manner of doing so, which seems better 

 adapted to the ground than to trees, where one 

 would, prima facie^ have expected its combats to 

 take place. The birds stand directly fronting one 

 another, but to do this upon a tree-trunk, or a branch 

 that sloped at all steeply, they would have to stand, 

 or rather cling, sideways, since they never — that is 

 to say, I have never seen them — descend head down- 

 wards, though they do backwards, or backward-side- 

 ways, with ease. Such duels, therefore, as I have 

 here described, would have to be fought upon a 

 horizontal branch, but neither would this, perhaps, 

 be very convenient, or much in accordance with 

 the bird's habits. The ground alone — especially 

 the greensward — would seem quite suitable for 

 such tourneys, and since they are sometimes held 

 there, the probability, to my mind, is that they 

 always, or nearly always, are. Nor is this all, for 

 the nuptial rite itself is performed by these wood- 

 peckers upon the ground — a strange thing, surely, 

 in a bird belonging to so arboreal a family. Here, 

 again, I will describe what I have seen, for, the next 

 day, I came to watch in the same place, getting there 

 about 7 in the morning, from before which time — 

 for they were there when I came — up to 8.30, when 

 I left, three or four birds — the same ones doubtless — 

 fed quietly on the green. In the afternoon I came 

 again, and whilst watching one that was still feeding 

 busily, another flew down, some way off it, and after 

 considering the ways of the ant, for a little, and being 

 wise in regard to them, came up in a series of rapid 



