GREAT BLACK WOODPECKER. 139 



specimens were not preserved. This species is also re- 

 corded to have been killed in Lincolnshire. Some years 

 since a communication was made to the Zoological Society 

 of London, that two examples of the Great Black Wood- 

 pecker had been at that time killed in a small wood near 

 Scole Inn, in Norfolk ; and still more recently, a pair were 

 frequently seen in a small preserved wood, near Christchurch, 

 in Hampshire. It was hoped that they would have remained 

 to go to nest ; but the birds, disturbed by being too fre- 

 quently watched, left the wood. A Great Black Wood- 

 pecker was killed in 1847, near Knaresborough, and in 

 1851 another was seen in the park at Audley End, and 

 though shot at, was not obtained. Lastly, I may add, that 

 Sir Robert Sibbald, in his Scotia Ittustrata, claims Picus 

 martins as a bird of Scotland, including it in his Historia 

 Animalium in Scotia, p. 1 5. 



The general habits of the Woodpeckers are well known. 

 These birds are rather limited in their powers of flight ; 

 they live in, or near woods, are retiring and shy, hiding 

 themselves from view when approached by passing to that 

 side of the tree or branch which is farthest from the in- 

 truder. They search the bark of trees, or decaying parts, 

 for any insects that may be concealed in the fissures, as- 

 cending the body of the tree or its branches with facility 

 by climbing, occasionally supporting themselves by their 

 tail-feathers, the shafts of which are strong, elastic, and 

 pointed. The tongue of these birds, by a particular ana- 

 tomical construction, is capable of great elongation and 

 extension, and being copiously supplied with a tenacious 

 mucus, secreted by large glands on the sides of the throat, 

 small or light insects are rapidly taken up by adhesion. 

 During the night these birds occupy the holes so fre- 

 quently to be observed in trees, some of which they ex- 

 cavate, or partially enlarge for themselves by working with 



