BIRDS 



this bird ever returns to the same nesting-hole 

 seems doubtful, and where starlings are as 

 numerous as they are here, the old hole is 

 always taken by these birds and a new one is 

 excavated by the yaffle. When once the 

 hole has been made, the woodpeckers are not 

 easily driven away. I once enlarged a hole 

 sufficiently to admit my own arm, only to 

 find the eggs had not been deposited, but on 

 visiting the spot a fortnight later I took six 

 fresh eggs. Not long after another six were 

 laid and successfully hatched in the same hole. 



90. Great Spotted Woodpecker. Dendrocopus 



major (Linn.). 



Locally, Pied Woodpecker, French Wood- 

 pecker. 



Fairly common in the wooded districts. I 

 have often found its eggs near Wargrave ; it 

 also breeds annually near Maidenhead, Wind- 

 sor and Reading, but becomes rarer in the 

 north-west of the county. From close obser- 

 vation with a glass, I am perfectly convinced 

 that the 'jarring' noise produced in the 

 spring by this species and the next to be 

 mentioned is made by blows repeated with 

 such rapidity that the head seems blurred to 

 the spectator. The noise is never produced 

 on a solid part of the tree, but a rotten or 

 hollow portion is required as a kind of 

 sounding-board. 



91. Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. Dendrocopus 



minor (Linn.). 



Locally, Little French Woodpecker, Barred 

 Woodpecker. 



Resident, and far more common than is 

 generally supposed, for it loves the highest 

 trees, and is often overlooked in consequence. 

 A nest or so may be found at Park Place most 

 years, and it also breeds near Windsor, Reading, 

 Maidenhead, in old alders by the Thames, 

 while its eggs have been taken at Cothill 

 (Fauna and Flora of Radley and Neighbourhood, 

 p. 10). 



[Great Black Woodpecker. Picus martlus, 

 Linn. 



The admission of this bird to the British 

 list rests on somewhat slender basis (see Mr. 

 J. H. Gurney's criticism in Dresser's Birds of 

 Europe, v. 13-14), and I give the following 

 for what it is worth from Clark Kennedy's 

 Birds of Berks and Bucks (p. 178). In April, 

 1 844, one seen for several consecutive days in 

 Home Park, Windsor, by Mr. Walter. In 

 March, 1867, one seen by Clark Kennedy in 

 Ditton Park, who states that he was suffici- 

 ently near to identify the bird with certainty. 

 A far more satisfactory notice is that sent by 



Capt. Savile G. Reid to the Zoologist for 

 March, 1888 (p. 107), in which he mentions 

 a great black woodpecker seen by Capt. 

 Coleridge in his garden at Twyford. He says : 

 ' Capt. Coleridge got within twenty yards of 

 the bird ; he is well acquainted with all our 

 common British birds and knows the other 

 woodpeckers perfectly well ; he is also most 

 unlikely to have made a mistake on this 

 occasion, as his father's collection, familiar to 

 him from boyhood, contained two stuffed 

 specimens of D. martius.'] 



92. Kingfisher. Alcedo ispida, Linn. 



The kingfisher is common, and perhaps 

 increasing since shooting on the Thames was 

 stopped by Act of Parliament. The banks of 

 the river and chalk cliffs are a favourite site 

 for its nest, but I have found one in a hole in 

 a small pit 2 yards square, and another in a 

 wood quite a mile from water. The old 

 idea that this bird makes a nest of fish bones 

 is erroneous : the eggs are laid on the bare 

 earth, and the fish bones are thrown up 

 whilst the bird is sitting. 



93. Hoopoe. Upupa epops, Linn. 



A not very uncommon visitor, and I have 

 some evidence, though not quite conclusive, 

 that it has bred in our county. Four birds 

 were met with near Reading and Wallingford 

 in the spring of 1700, one of which was 

 kept alive for some time fed on mealworms 

 (' Ornith. Bercheria '). Clark Kennedy (Birds 

 of Berks and Bucks, p. 179-80) has recorded 

 the following occurrences: (i) One killed 

 in the autumn of 1864 near Spital Barracks 

 and another seen in Windsor Great Park by 

 the same observer ; (2) one shot by Mr. 

 J. P. Franklin about June 18, 1867, at 

 Wallingford ; (3) another obtained near 

 Cookham by Dr. R. B. Sharpy ; and (4) 

 one near Aldermaston at the beginning of 

 the last century by Mr. Congreve. Many 

 years ago a bird of this species was shot 

 at Park Place by the keeper Hiscock (C. 

 E. Stubbs, MS.). More recently one was 

 seen near Wellington College, in June, 

 1864 (Wellington College Natural History 

 Report] ; one killed near Newbury on April 

 23, 1866, and another at East Ilsley in 

 August, 1877 (W. H. Herbert, Newbury 

 District Field Club, pp. 97, 250) ; Mr. Dover 

 of Ilsley shot one in 1883, and another was 

 killed by Mr. Cundell of Ramsbury in 1874 

 ('Birds of Newbury and District'). Mr. 

 Phillips mentions a last example shot at East- 

 hampstead on Easter Monday, 1895 a very 

 fine specimen. 



