76 Wild Life in Wales 



the influence of the male on the colouring of eggs, but the 

 discussion of that subject cannot conveniently be entered 

 into at present. 



A single male Hawfinch was seen near Pont Newydd on 

 4th June, and later in the year another was noticed at 

 Cerrig-y-Druidion. On yth October one was busily en- 

 gaged in extracting the seeds from the berries of a mountain 

 ash, on the roadside near Glan Llyn, but, excepting these, 

 I saw nothing of these birds in Merionethshire. They 

 doubtless, however, nest hereabouts in small numbers, but 

 they are such retiring birds, especially in the breeding 

 season, that they may easily be overlooked. Peas are 

 sometimes raided by them in the gardens about Corwen, 

 and further eastwards they become more common. 



Great Spotted Woodpeckers were met with in many 

 places ; in the valley of the Eiddon they are almost as 

 frequent as the Green Woodpecker. Some of their nesting 

 holes I ascertained from actual measurement to be perfect 

 circles, with an almost identical diameter of 2 J inches ; nor 

 did the soundness or otherwise of the trees bored at all 

 influence the size and shape of the holes. It is really most 

 wonderful how the birds are able to preserve a mathematical 

 accuracy that would certainly tax the powers of the most 

 skilful mechanic were he deprived of his calipers. From 

 one not very large and much decayed trunk I disturbed a 

 Woodpecker ; probably he had only been engaged in 

 digging in the soft wood for insects, and not for nesting 

 purposes, but I was rather surprised, when I shook the tree, 

 to see a Squirrel emerge from one of the adjoining holes. 



The weird call made by the Great Spotted Woodpecker 

 in spring has been much written about, and it has been 

 generally accepted that it is produced by rapid hammering 

 upon a branch. That the birds do make a loud noise in 

 this way when the vicinity of the nest is threatened has 

 been abundantly testified by many observers, but I have 

 never heard what I must call the bleating note produced 

 under such circumstances, the hammering noise then made 

 sounding to my ear something quite different. This bleat- 

 ing call is undoubtedly a message of love, in the nature of 



