DENDROCOPUS MINOB 43 



Fedja, found that the woods of that district had suffered greatly from 

 these forest-fires, and in one of his letters to me wrote " that in some 

 parts it was most difficult to make one's way about on account of the 

 thickets of hard blackened stems of the tree-heath, {Erica arborea L.) 

 and other shrubs, which used to cover one with black marks, and give 

 one the appearance of having been rubbed ail over with a burnt cork." 



Some other species of birds from these districts, such as for 

 instance the Tree-creeper, and the Woodlark, also show this soiling of 

 plumage very markedly. 



In its note, and in its general habits, the Algerian Greater Pied 

 Woodpecker resembles our European bird, being of a solitary and shy 

 disposition, though less wary and suspicious than the Green Wood- 

 pecker. It frequents deciduous woods for the most part, particularly 

 those rich in old trees, in the decayed trunks and branches of which 

 an abundance of the bird's natural food is to be found. This consists 

 mainly of insects and their larvse, though worms and slugs are also 

 eaten, as well as, it is said, certain berries and seeds. When the bird 

 is probing a trunk or branch for food, the hammering or tapping of its 

 hard and powerful bill may be heard a long way off. The flight of the 

 species, like that of most Woodpeckers, is undulating. In its nesting 

 habits it appears to differ in no way from D. major, but I have no 

 positive information on the subject, beyond what is given by Loche, 

 who states that it deposits four or five eggs in the hole of a tree, 

 the eggs being pure glossy white, and measuring about 23 X 18 mm. 



DENDROCOPUS MINOR (Litmc-eus). 

 LESSEE PIED WOODPECKER. 



Picus minor, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 176 (1766) ; Malherbe, Faiinc Orn. de 

 I'Alg. p. 22 (1855) ; Loche, Expl. Sci. Alg. Ois. ii, p. 82 (1867). 



Dendrocopus minor, Koch, Sijsl. baier. Zool. i, p. 73 (1816); Hargitt, 

 Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xviii, p. 252. 



Picus (Leuconotopicus) minor, Malherbe, Cat. Bais. d'Ois. Alg. p. 17 

 (1846). 



Picus ledoucii, 21alherbe, Faitne Orn. de I' Alg. p. 22 (1856). 



Dendrocopus minor ledouci, Erlanger, J. f. 0. 1900, p. 1. 



