GREAT BLACK WOODPECKER. 129 



not preserved. This species is also recorded to have been 

 killed in Lincolnshire. A few years since a communication 

 was made to the Zoological Society of London, that two 

 examples of the Great Black Woodpecker had been at that 

 time killed in a small wood near Scole Inn, in Norfolk ; and 

 still more recently, a pair were frequently seen in a small pre- 

 served "wood, near Christchurch, in Hampshire. It wms 

 hoped that they would have remained to go to nest ; but the 

 birds disturbed by being too frequently watched, left the 

 wood. Lastly, I may add, that Sir Robert Sibbald, in his 

 Scotia lUustrata, claims Picus martins as a bird of Scotland, 

 including it in his Historia Animalium in Scotia, p. 15. 



The general habits of the Woodpeckers are well known. 

 These birds are rather limited in their powers of flight ; they 

 live in, or near woods, are retiring and shy, hiding them- 

 selves from view when approached by passing to that side of 

 the tree or branch which is fiirthest from the intruder. They 

 search the bark of trees, or decaying parts, for any insects 

 that may be concealed in the fissures, ascending the body of 

 the tree, or its branches, with facility by climbing, occasion- 

 ally supporting themselves by their tail-feathers, the shafts of 

 wjiich are strong, elastic, and pointed. The tongue of these 

 birds, by a particular anatomical construction, is capable of 

 great elongation and extension, and being copiously supplied 

 with a tenacious mucus, secreted by large glands on the sides 

 of the throat, small or light insects are rapidly taken up by 

 adhesion. During the night these birds occupy the holes so 

 frequently to be observed in trees, some of which they ex- 

 cavate, or partially enlarge for themselves by working with 

 the point of their sharp and strong bill. In these holes, at 

 the usual season, the eggs are deposited, which in all the spe- 

 cies, as far as they have been ascertained, are invariably 

 white, smooth, and shining. The males are said to take a 

 share in the task of incubation. In these particulars the 



VOL. II, K 



