TIM-: WOOD PI :< KI.KS 



trees beinu especial favourites. The nest is dug in the item or a big 

 branch, as circumstances determine, the hole varying from seven to 

 fourteen inches deep, the eggs being laid, according to the traditions 

 of its tribe, on the decayed wood at the bottom, without any prepara- 

 tion for their reception. 



As to displays associated with courtship, we know practically 

 nothing as regards the woodpeckers. But Mr. H. E. Howard ' makes 

 a passing reference to the display of the lesser spotted-woodpecker, 

 which, like the chiflchaff, the blue-tit, and hedge-sparrow, " will float 

 towards his mate through the air like a big moth, with outstretched, 

 slowly-flapping wings " ; or will approach in semicircles, beating the 

 air with a peculiarly slow movement of the wings. In a recent letter 

 to me, he kindly adds the following note : " When mating the call- 

 note is similar to that of the greater spotted-woodpecker, but is 

 uttered more softly. I have seen both sexes quite close to one 

 another on a tree trunk, the male uttering the call-note and occa- 

 sionally tapping, very slowly, on the trunk. In response, apparently, 

 the female utters the usual call-note of the species. Then follow 

 the aerial evolutions first referred to." 



Mr. O. H. New 2 once saw a male, of the greater spotted species, 

 settle on a dead bough above the nest-hole and engage in comical 

 sideway jumps, at the same time peering cautiously about him. Later 

 both birds danced about on the trunk and branches of the nest-tree 

 and directly after paired. 



Concerning the green-woodpecker at this period of its life-history, 

 He have a few notes by Mr. Edmund Selous, 3 but they are very incon- 

 clusive, and evidently afford only a slight insight into what takes 

 place, though doubtless in due time he, or another, may be able to 

 fill in the missing phases. Mr. Selous had the good fortune to watch 

 two males which, facing one another on the ground, seemed at first 

 to be engaged in play, but presently they closed in an angry scuffle, 



Brituth Warblera, Part II. (under ChiffchafT). ' Zoologist, 1001, p. 05. 



1 Bird L\fe (Jlimpsea, p. 225 el teq. 



