48 WILD LIFE: FURRED AND FEATHERED. 



hear ; the latter is common enough not far from London ; 

 in the Thames valley for instance. From some old giant 

 of the woods sounds this tap-tap-tap of the yaffingale, 

 another name for the green woodpecker, as he works 

 for his daily living on the tree-trunk, working his way 

 up with short jerky movements in an oblique direction. 

 His colouring of olive-green on the back, shading into 

 yellow, with crimson crown and nape, attracts attention. 

 His knowing-looking head appears for a moment round 

 the trunk on which he is busy, on hearing the breaking of 

 a dry twig beneath our feet; it startles and drives him 

 with dipping flight to a more distant tree. Soon he will be 

 hewing a neat round hole in a branch or bough of some 

 softer wooded tree, and little chips of wood scattered about 

 may guide you to one of these. His relative, the greater 

 spotted woodpecker, is not so industrious ; he will enlarge 

 some natural cavity in an old decayed bough until it is 

 of a size and shape that please him. 



The nuthatch seeks for a suitable hole in the same 

 fashion, in the branch of a tree or in some old wall. 

 There it builds in much more scientific fashion than do the 

 last-named birds, blocking up the entrance to its nest by 

 skilful bird masonry, using as its materials for this purpose 

 small stones and clay. A small opening is left for the 

 birds' outgoings and incomings. The male utters a liquid 

 flute-like note ; during this month it is a shrill tui-tui-tui ! 

 Mr. F. Bond gave a nuthatch's nest to the British Museum, 

 the weight of the clay used in the bird's work on this 

 particular one being eleven pounds. It had been taken 

 from a haystack ; its measurements were thirteen inches by 

 eight. The length of the bird itself is about five inches, 

 and as it moves up and down a tree trunk with wonderfully 



