A Curious Instance of Scansorial Instinct. 49 



have never seen either of the others " stocking" at them, 

 though the Green so engaged is an every- day sight. 



About the "tapping" of these birds, so much talked 

 of as to be the burden of many a song notably that 

 sentimental lay of poor Henry Kirke White, who was 

 wrong in making it a beech tree I believe this noise is 

 oftener made by the Nuthatch than any of the wood- 

 peckers. The Lesser Spotted certainly gives out such a 

 sound while searching for its food, but it more resembles 

 a "whirr" than tapping, as a piece of dry stick drawn 

 rapidly across a coarse-toothed comb. The other two 

 also "tap," while splitting the bark to lay open the lair 

 of the woodlouse ; but the sound made by them is not 

 perceptible at any very great distance. 



The voices of the two Spotted species, so far as I have 

 heard them, are quite different from that of the Picus 

 viridis, differing also from one another. That of the 

 Great Spotted is a monosyllabic note, a " chuck " very 

 much like that the starling sometimes utters, repeated at 

 intervals of nearly a minute each ; while the call-note of 

 the Lesser comes nearer to that of the Green Woodpecker, 

 only of fainter, feebler tone. 



Of all the four British species, the Green Woodpecker is 

 the one of commonest occurrence, and so best known. 

 Still, its habits are less understood than might be sup- 

 posed, some of them even being incorrectly described 

 by ornithologists of greatest note. In a future chapter, 

 to be devoted to this interesting bird, I purpose rectify- 

 ing such of these errors as I have found the facts to 

 contradict. 



