AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 265 



this habit we have frequently been disappointed in 

 excavating into trees at the foot of which we had 

 found a heap of fresh chips. The eggs are generally 

 five or six in number, of a pure glossy white, and are 

 laid on a few chips left in the hole, or on the bare 

 wood. We have previously alluded in these notes to 

 the frequent habit of the Starling of taking possession 

 of the nesting-labours of the Woodpecker, and the 

 apparent reason of the victory of the weaker bird ; an 

 instance of this came under our special notice some 

 years ago in our orchard at Lilford : a pair of Wood- 

 peckers had selected an old apple-tree, and as the 

 orchard was a good deal frequented during the 

 working-hours of the day by the gardeners and 

 ourselves, the birds worked vigorously from daylight 

 till the featherless labourers came upon the scene, 

 had another good spell during the dinner-hour, and 

 again in the evenings from 6 P.M., when the men left 

 off work, till dusk. The boring-operations were 

 commenced upon the main trunk of the tree, at a 

 height of about 5 feet from the ground. When we 

 first discovered the work, the incision was hardly an 

 inch deep ; but on the fourth day the birds had 

 reached the rotten wood at a distance of about 5^ 

 inches, and on the seventh had ceased to work. By 

 the aid of a pliant switch we could feel the bottom of 

 the shaft, and twice put out the bird by so doing, 

 but she did not desert her home, as we subsequently 

 watched her enter and leave it on several occasions 

 during at least a week after the conclusion of the 

 boring-operations, till one day, on tapping the tree, 

 a Starling flew out, and, as we soon afterwards dis- 

 covered, had carried in a quantity of dry grass and 

 feathers. Not a fragment of Woodpecker's eggs was 



