FIRST APPEARANCES OF BIRDS, INSECTS, ETC. 171 



2.15 The male came to the nest and fed one young one only 

 three times by regurgitation. When he had finished I whistled 

 to him to try to detain him, but he only peered about, and 

 fidgetted, and then went up the tree, where he stayed awhile 

 and left. I heard nothing more of the birds until 3.40, when 

 one of them spoke up to the right about 100 yards away. At 

 4.10 the female which had been wandering round came to the 

 tree, but never went into the rest ; after climbing about for 

 two or three minutes she settled down on one of the high 

 boughs. I managed to shift the camera up, get it round 

 and alter the elevation and take some photographs of her, 

 but they are not very satisfactory. 



7th July. These young were still in the nest, but 10th July 

 they had gone. 



Picus viridis is quite the most suspicious bird we have 

 observed at close quarters, and the female is highly nervous, 

 not having a tithe of the pluck of the male, who for all his 

 suspicion and caution is in some respects a bold bird. The 

 way he seemed to divine one's presence in the tent was 

 extraordinary. On at least two occasions (curiously enough, 

 although we were surprised and discussed the matter with 

 each other, neither made a written note of it) the male came 

 into the tent to investigate matters. As the tent is only a 

 matter of 10 feet high at its maximum and the material 

 forming the sides 11 feet high in order to get level with the 

 nest, it was raised by additional large bamboos driven into 

 the ground a further 5 feet, the camera being worked by 

 standing on the top of a high pair of steps inside the tent ; 

 it will therefore be observed that from the foot of the material 

 to the ground there was an open space of 4 feet, and we banked 

 this in on the front and sides with birch growth, bracken, and 

 and the like, leaving the back open as an easy meant of ingress 

 and egress. The male used to come to the back of the tent on 

 the ground and walk in, and look up round to sec if anyone was 

 inside. He did it twice when E.H.C. was in the tent and once 

 when W.P.C. was in it, and both of us feel sure he communicated 

 the fact to the hen in some way. (W.P.C. and E.H.C. ). 



