128 THE GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER 
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Spotted Woodpeckers. Their habits and manners were very 
amusing, especially whilst searching for food. They alighted on 
the timber, placed the body in a particular position, generally 
with the head downward ’ [differing in this respect from the Green 
Woodpecker], ‘and commenced pecking away at the bark. Piece 
by piece it fell under their bills, as chips from the axe of a woodman. 
Upon examining the bark, I found that the pieces were chipped 
away in order that the bird might arrive at a small white grub which 
lay snugly embedded in the bark ; and the adroitness of the bird in 
finding out those portions of it which contained the greatest number 
of grubs, was certainly very extraordinary. Where the birds were 
most at work on a particular tree, I shelled off the bark and found 
nearly thirty grubs in nine squares inches; but on shelling off 
another portion from the same tree, which remained untouched, 
no grub was visible. Yet how the bird could ascertain precisely 
where his food lay was singular, as in both cases the surface of the 
bark appeared the same and bore no traces of having been per- 
forated by insects. During the day one bird chipped off a piece 
thirty inches long and twenty wide—a considerable day’s work 
for so small a workman.’ Another observer states that this bird 
rarely descends to the ground, and affects the upper branches 
of trees in preference to the lower. Its note is like that of the Green 
Woodpecker. Both species are charged with resorting to gardens 
and orchards during the fruit season, not in quest of insect food ; 
but no instance of this has come under my own notice. It is said, 
too, that they eat nuts. This statement is most probably correct. 
I myself doubt whether there are many birds of any sort which 
can resist a walnut ; and I would recommend any one who is hospit- 
ably disposed towards the birds which frequent his garden, to 
strew the ground with fragments of these nuts. To birds who 
are exclusively vegetarians, if indeed there be any such indigenous 
to Britain, they are a natural article of diet, and as from their 
oily nature they approximate to animal matter, they are most 
acceptable to insectivorous birds. They have an advantage over 
almost every other kind of food thus exposed, that they are not 
liable to be appropriated as scraps of meat and bread are, by prowl- 
ing cats and dogs. A walnut, suspended from the bough of a tree 
by a string, will soon attract the notice of some inquisitive Tit, and, © 
when once detected, will not fail to receive the visits of all birds 
of the same family which frequent the neighbourhood. A more 
amusing pendulum can scarcely be devised. To ensure the success 
of the experiment, a small portion of the shell should be removed. 
