114 BIRDS OF CHESHIRE. 
he did not actually find a nest, used to hear the birds 
daily, and his keeper told him that in April he saw 
three fighting for a hole in a hollow beech! Mr. K. H. 
Jones has found the nest at Plumbley and Peover. 
The bird breeds in the fir-woods on Alderley Edge, 
and in the parks at Alderley and Dunham Massey. 
Probably it occurs in many of the parks in the 
Plain, but has been overlooked owing to its retiring 
habits. 
Mr. J. K. Taylor informs us that some years ago he 
saw a pair of birds at their nesting-hole in an ash-tree 
near Goyts Bridge; and we have seen many holes at 
Taxal Wood in the same valley. 
In Dunham Park the Great Spotted Woodpecker 
generally excavates its nesting-hole in a beech; at 
Alderley Edge and Taxal firs and birches are the 
favourite trees; and Mr. K. H. Jones has noticed a 
predilection for birches at Plumbley and Peover. Old 
nesting-holes are frequently occupied by Starlings. 
Mr. R. Newstead has pointed out that this Wood- 
pecker sometimes eats nauseous insects. In the 
stomach of a female obtained at Broxton in January 
1891, he found at least four examples of a ladybird 
(Hippodamia variegata, Goez.), as well as a number 
of larvee and imagines of the palatable Rhagiwm bifas- 
ciatum, several of which were almost digested, whereas 
the ladybirds were fresh and had evidently been cap- 
tured last. From this it may be inferred that the 
distasteful ladybirds had been eaten readily and not 
owing to stress of hunger.? 
1 Dobie, op. cit. pp. 308, 309. 
2 Entomologist, vol. xxiv. p. 100. 1891. 
