264 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



great distance in a straight-upward direction, but 

 ascends spirally with frequent excursions on to likely 

 boughs, hardly ever, in our experience, sitting across 

 a bough as most other birds do. Almost every kind 

 of insect seems to come into the bill of fare of this 

 species, and although the timber-beetles and their 

 grubs, with ants, caterpillars, and spiders, no doubt 

 form its staple diet, we have once or twice seen it dart 

 from a tree and capture a passing moth or butterfly, 

 and often seen it searching for " gentles " on horseflesh 

 hung up for breeding those animals as bait for fishing- 

 purposes. Ants and their eggs are very favourite 

 morsels with the Woodpecker, who digs holes in the 

 hills made by these insects and watches like a Heron 

 for his prey. The stiff" tail of these birds is used as a 

 support in tree-climbing, but seems to be much in 

 the way in their terrestrial explorations, and the 

 actions of the Woodpecker on the ground are awk- 

 ward and grotesque. In this neighbourhood, elms 

 and ash trees seem to be the favourite nesting-places 

 of the Green Woodpecker, but as long as the wood 

 is soft and rotten at the core, they are not very 

 particular as to the species of tree, and we have met 

 with their nests in poplars, willows, alders, and 

 various fruit-trees. The hole is bored with marvellous 

 rapidity by both birds, horizontally, till the rotten 

 wood is reached, when they turn downwards at an 

 acute angle for some inches and enlarge the bottom 

 of their shaft to receive the eggs ; the chips of wood 

 are thrown and carried out to the mouth of the hole, 

 and are the best means of leading to the discovery of 

 a tenanted breeding-hole, though these birds seem to 

 begin upon and work at several spots for some time 

 before finally settling upon their nursery, and from 



