WOODPECKERS. 207 



of its carpentry may be frequently heard, though 

 a fair sight of its person is difficult to be obtained, 

 as it dodges from side to side of the trunk or 

 branch on which it happens to be, when an ob- 

 server is near, with much cunning and address, 

 taking care to keep on the farthest side. It does 

 not confine itself, however, to the tall trees, for it 

 occasionally alights on decayed pollards, as well 

 as on the rails and posts of fences, where in the 

 accumulated moss and lichen, or in the various 

 holes and crevices, it finds a rich harvest of spiders, 

 ants, small beetles, caterpillars, and other insects ; 

 while in the summer season it varies its bill of fare 

 by stealing cherries, plums, and other fruit from 

 the gardens. Bechstein asserts that it feeds also 

 on oak and beech mast )? nuts, and the seeds of the 

 fir tree : and in confinement, on meat. In this 

 country it is not, as far as we know, often kept as 

 a cage bird, but the English translator of Bech- 

 stein gives the following interesting account of 

 a Middle Spotted Woodpecker (Picus medius, 

 LINN.), a species very near akin to this : " I have 

 seen a Woodpecker of this species, which was 

 reared by a lady, to whom it seemed very much 

 attached. It had learned of itself to go and re- 

 turn, knocking hard at the window if it was shut 

 out. It was very amusing to see it climbing 

 nimbly over its mistress till it had reached her 

 mouth ; it then asked her by light strokes of its 

 beak for the food which she was accustomed to 

 give it ; this was generally a little meat. It dis- 

 appeared one day, without any one's knowing 

 what accident had befallen it." 



In the last edition of Pennant's " British 

 Zoology," it is stated that this species, by putting 



