144 piciD^. 



purpose. The noise may be distinctly heard for half a mile. 

 This bird will also keep its head in very quick motion, while 

 moving about the tree for food, jarring the bark, and shaking 

 it at the time it is seeking for insects." 



These birds inhabit holes in trees, and the females exhibit 

 great attachment to their eggs ; Montagu mentions an in- 

 stance where " notwithstanding a chisel and mallet were used 

 to enlarge the hole, the female did not attempt to fly out till 

 the hand was introduced, when she quitted the tree at ano- 

 ther opening. The eggs were five in number, perfectly 

 white and glossy, weighing about one dram, or rather more. 

 These were deposited two feet below the opening, on the 

 decayed wood, without the smallest appearance of a nest." 

 The eggs are one inch long, and nine lines broad. 



The young birds are perfectly fledged and able to shift for 

 themselves by the middle of July. 



I have referred to Kensington Gardens as a locality in the 

 vicinity of London rather remarkable for the number of its 

 insectivorous birds. The Woodpeckers are frequently to be 

 seen and heard there, and I remember, some years ago, see- 

 ing a family of the young of the species now under consi- 

 deration, which had been taken and reared by the keeper at 

 the Bayswater gate, which were climbing over the inside of 

 their cage as it hung against a large tree near the lodge. 



This species occurs in all the southern and midland coun- 

 ties of England, but becomes more rare on proceeding north- 

 wards : it is found in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. Mr. 

 Selby says, " In Northumberland, scarcely a year passes 

 without some of these birds being obtained in the months 

 of October and November. This induces me to suppose 

 that they are migratory in some of the more northern parts 

 of Europe, perhaps in Norway and Sweden. They arrive 

 about the same time as the Woodcock, and other equatorial 

 migrants ; and generally after stormy weather from the north 



