FIRST APPEARANCES OF BIRDS, INSECTS, ETC. 167 



Picus viridis (The Green Woodpecker). 



15th May. One of the holes (nest A) started by D.m. 

 anglicus has been taken over by this bird. 



10th June. Nest A was given attention on this date by 

 E.H.C. He notes as follows : 



" Soon after I got up the tent, one of the birds went in, 

 the hen I think, but she did not stay long. 



10.0 Both birds were prowling round in the vicinity, some- 

 times hunting on the ground for food. 



10.15 And sometimes on the pines and birches close at hand. 

 Every little while they would call affectionately to one 

 another. 



11.21 The female came to the nest. 12 The female returned 

 and was still on the nest at 12.40, so I went out for some 

 lunch. 1.0 I returned, but there was no sign of the birds. 



1.30 The male hopped round and the female looked out 

 and exchanged a few notes of conversation with him. He 

 stayed close to the tent flustering around in the dead leaves, 

 together with a blackbird, but it was very easy to distinguish 

 the heavy hops of the P. viridis from the lighter footsteps of 

 the blackbird. 



1.35 to 2. 1 amused myself taking the large wood ants which 

 had invaded my tent out of my clothing, and then as the hen 

 seemed either to be sitting or covering very young chicks, 

 and neither bird was fruitful from the observation point of 

 view, I gave up. 



13th June. I put up to this pair again, but after great 

 difficulty with my apparatus I found such preposterous 

 exposures would be required under the thick foliage that I 

 gave the idea up. The young had just been hatched, I think, 

 as they set up a faint bee -like humming when I scratched the 

 tree with my finger nails. The female looked out of the nest 

 once or twice and the male came round and gave his " alarm" 

 yaffle. This was the last time I paid attention to this pair 

 of birds. 



20th June. This brood had progressed to the stage of 

 making a noise like a swarm of bees. The old birds dug so 



