THE WOODPECKERS 



limit in-; raids on the part of the green-woodpecker aside, our British 

 woodpeckers are all strictly arboreal birds, but their choice of trees, and 

 their methods of climbing, differ somr\\liat. As much, indeed, might 

 be expected, for thereby undue competition is avoided. 



AccordingtoYarrell, beech and oak trees are rarely selected by the 

 fllOBO moodpeotcr as breeding sites, elm, ash, poplar, horse-chestnut, 

 sycamore, and silver-fir being the more favoured. This suppoied 

 avoidance of oak-trees, however, is not borne out by facts. He also 

 remark-, that tin- work of r\ca\ ni ion i> Ix-un li\ ; \ntiral incision 

 which is soon enlarged to a circle, the tunnel being then driven to- 

 \var<U tin- In-art \\nnd.aiid dr. ( -,.|idin- lor alioiit t\\rl\r inrhrs. is then 

 enlarged to form a chamber, on the floor of which the eggs are laid. 

 The same tree, he says, may be used for an indefinite period as long 

 as thirty years but a fresh tree is generally selected each year. He 

 makes tile further interesting observation that the old holes are used 

 as sleeping-places. Mr. Edmund Selous, however, inclines to the 

 belief that it sleeps "clinging perpendicularly to the trunk of a tree." 



Having regard to the large size and powerful beak of this bird, 

 it seems incredible that, after having successfully excavated a nursery, 

 it should allow itself to be dispossessed by another bird, even of its 

 own size. Yet the starling commonly ousts it, as has already been 

 shown, 3 and it will even allow itself to be driven away by the little 

 nuthatch ! * Occasionally, as might be supposed, it disputes possession 

 with its relative the greater spotted-woodpecker. 



The young, as with all the woodpeckers, have no down, so that 

 when the feathers sprout the body recalls that of a porcupine ! The 

 manner of their feeding seems to vary. At any rate, so far as obser- 

 vation has gone, it would seem that while the green-woodpecker feeds 

 its offspring by regurgitation ' that is to say, on partially digested 

 food the greater and lesser-spotted species administer food in its raw 



Bird Life Olimptu, p. 237. 



' See under "Starling," vol. ii. p. 125. 



1 Ho worth Smith, Bird Life and Bird Lore, p. 405. 



Selous, Binl Life Qlimptn, p. 217. 



VOL. II. 2U 



