THE GREEN WOODPECKER 129 



THE LESSER SPOTTED \^ OODPECKER 



DEUDROCOPUS MINOR 



Forehead and lower parts dirty white ; crown bright red ; nape, back, and 

 wings black, with white bars ; tail black, the outer feathers tipped with 

 white and barred with black; iris red. Length live inches and a half; 

 breadth twelve inches. Eggs glossy white. 



This handsome little bird resembles its congeners so closely, both 

 in structure and habits, that it scarcely needs a lengthened descrip- 

 tion. Resident in England but rare in Scotland and Ireland, owing 

 to its fondness for high trees and its small size it often escapes 

 notice. It lays its eggs on the rotten wood, which it has either 

 pecked, or which has fallen, from the holes in trees ; they are not 

 to be distinguished from those of the Wryneck. Lately (1908) a 

 Scottish newspaper recorded the shooting of "that rare species, 

 the Spotted Woodpecker!" "The man with the gun" is in- 

 curable. 



THE GREEN WOODPECKER 



GECINUS VIRIDIS 



Upper plumage green ; under, greenish ash ; crown, back of the head, and 

 moustaches crimson ; face black. Female — less crimson on the head ; 

 moustaches black. Length thirteen inches ; breadth twenty-one inches. 

 Eggs glossy white. 



One of the most interesting among the natural sounds of the 

 country, is that of the 



\Vocdpecker tapping the hollow beech tree : 



yet one may walk through the woods many times and hear no tap- 

 ping at aU, and even if such a sound be detected and traced to its 

 origin, it will often be found to proceed from the Nuthatch, who has 

 wedged a hazel-nut into the bark of an oak, than from the hammer- 

 ing of a Woodpecker. Yet often indeed it may be observed ascend- 

 ing, by a series of starts, the trunk of a tree, inclining now a little 

 to the right, and now to the left, disappearing now and then on the 

 side farthest from the spectator, and again coming into view some- 

 what higher up. Nor is its beak idle ; this is employed sometimes 

 in dislodging the insects which lurk in the rugged bark, and some- 

 times in tapping the trunk in order to find out whether the wood 

 beneath is sound or otherwise. Just as a carpenter sounds a waU 

 with his hammer in order to discover where the brickwork ends 

 and where lath and plaster begin, so the Woodpecker sounds the 

 wooden pillar to which it is clinging, in order to discover where the 



B.B, K 



