272 The New Forest : its History and its Scenery. 



a squirrel coming out with an egg in its claw or mouth. I 

 snould have heen inclined to have doubted the fact had I not 

 seen it. The sucked eggs which are so often found must, there- 

 fore, be attributed quite as much to the squirrel as the magpie 

 or the jay, who have so long borne the guilt. Of course, too, 

 from the great extent of wood we should expect to find the 

 woodpeckers very plentiful. The common woodpecker, known 

 as the "yaffingale" and " woodnacker," is to be seen darting 

 down every glade. The greater-spotted {Picus major) is not 

 unfrequent, and the lesser-spotted {Picus minor) in the spring 

 comes out of the woods and frequents the orchards of Burley 

 and Alum Green, boring its hole in the dead boughs. 



And here let me notice the tenacity with which the greater- 

 spotted woodpecker, whose nesting habits are not elsewhere in 

 England so well observable, clings to its breeding-place ; for T. 

 have known it, when its eggs have been taken, to lay again in 

 the same hole, the eggs being, however, smaller. Mr. Farren 

 tells me that he has observed the same fact, which is curious, as 

 its ally, the green woodpecker, is so easily driven away, by even 

 a common starling. 



The presence of the great black woodpecker (Picus martins) 

 has long been suspected, especially since a specimen has been 

 killed in the Isle of Wight, and a pair have been seen near 

 Christchurch.* Mr. Farren, in 1862, was fortunate enough 

 not only to see the bird, but to discover its nest. On the 

 ninth of June, whilst in Pignel Wood, near Brockenhurst, he 

 observed the hen bird fly out of a hole placed about six feet 

 high in a small oak, from which he had earlier in the season 

 taken a green woodpecker's nest. Hiding himself in the bush- 



* Yarrell, vol. ii. p. i39. 

 272 



