12 HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



tance it could be heard and found it just one- third 

 of a mile. At that distance I could hear it distinctly ; 

 farther on, not at all. It seemed almost incredible 

 that the sound produced by so small a stick as a 

 woodpecker's beak striking a tree should be audible 

 at that distance. 



It is hardly to be doubted that the drumming is 

 used as a love-call, though it is often heard in late 

 summer. It is, however, in early spring and in the 

 breeding season that it is oftenest heard, and I have 

 found that a good imitation of it will sometimes greatly 

 excite the bird. The same bird may be heard drum- 

 ming here, there, and everywhere in a wood or copse, 

 the sound varying somewhat in character and strength 

 according to the wood ; but each bird as a rule has 

 a favourite drumming-tree, and it probably angers him 

 to hear another bird at the spot. On one occasion, 

 finding that a very large, old, and apparently dying 

 cedar in a wood was constantly used by a woodpecker, 

 I went to the spot and imitated the sound. Very 

 soon the bird came and began drumming against me, 

 close by. I responded, and again he drummed ; and 

 becoming more and more excited he flew close to me, 

 and passing from tree to tree drummed at every spot 

 he lighted on. 



The other species have the same habit of drumming 

 on one tree. I have noticed it in the small spotted, 

 or banded, woodpecker ; and have observed that invari- 

 ably after he had drummed two or three times the 



