PARROTS AND WOODPECKERS 225 



iteration of the little noises. They usually go about 

 in pairs, and, whilst busily working over neighbour- 

 ing trees, frequently chatter aloud, as though each 

 bird were anxious to be assured of its mate's vicinity. 

 When the silk-cotton-trees are in full bloom, wood- 

 peckers sometimes join the throng of revellers that 

 visit the flowers, but it is uncertain whether this 

 desertion of their ordinary habits arises from a love 

 of alcoholic stimulants, or is owing to the fact that 

 the fluid that fills the bases of the great stiff corollas 

 acts as a trap in which numbers of insects lie 

 drowned. 



The only other woodpecker that is common in 

 gardens about Calcutta is the fulvous-breasted pied 

 species, Dendrocopus macii, specimens of which are 

 often to be seen in the Botanic Garden at Shibpur. 

 Though both this and the preceding bird are so 

 common, I never happened to meet with their 

 nests in any garden. This, however, is no evidence 

 that they do not frequently nest in the locality. 

 The discovery of a woodpecker's nest is usually 

 more or less a matter of accident owing to the fact 

 that the orifice of the cavern is very small, and is 

 generally situated at a considerable height, so that, 

 unless one happens to be close at hand at a time 

 when one of the owners goes in or out, its presence 

 may very readily escape notice. One of the very 

 few occasions on which I actually marked down a 

 nest was during an afternoon's walk through the 



