THE WOODPECKERS 43 



watched a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker drumming 

 within four yards of him. He was up a tree 

 inspecting a Green Woodpecker's nest, when a 

 Lesser Spotted settled on a dead branch about 

 four yards away and started drumming. He 

 says, " It had its beak open all the time and 

 seemed to vary the sound by slightly opening and 

 closing its beak." 



To return to the pair whose courtship I 

 watched, the drumming ceased long before I 

 got near the spot from which it had seemed to 

 come, so I waited for it to start again, standing 

 meantime by a sallow bush, watching the peacock, 

 tortoiseshell, and other butterflies, that the 

 warmth of this lovely spring day had brought 

 out from hibernation, fluttering to and fro in 

 the sunshine, now alighting to draw nectar from 

 the golden " palm " blossom, and then chasing 

 one another round the bush. It was a glorious 

 sight, and in watching the butterflies, I was 

 forgetting the object with which I came to the 

 wood, when there was an excited outburst of 

 Spotted Woodpecker calls, and two of the birds 

 darted by overhead, the one following the other. 

 In and out between the trees they went, gliding 

 up and down in their switchback flight, next 

 alighting on the trunk of a big tree, round which 

 they dodged as if in play. There was a glimpse 

 of black and white here, a flash of scarlet there, 

 as they slipped in and out and round about the 

 branches. Then away went one, and after it 

 the other, giving vent as it took wing to another 



