LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 85 



umberland one was killed near Newcastle, in the month of 

 January, 1829. In Orkney one was shot by Mr. Low, near 

 Stromness, in the winter of 1774; and another was observed 

 -at Sanday, on the 14th. of October, 1823. 



Like the rest of its race, nay, like the rest of another 

 race, the great object of this bird is to get to the 'top of 

 the tree.' Its motive, however more than can be always 

 said in the other case is only a laudable one to procure 

 its necessary food: it sometimes perches on the topmost 

 branch. It more peculiarly affects the apple, plum, beech, 

 and elm; but not by any means exclusively. 



The Little Woodpecker is of a morose disposition, and 

 prefers its own company: excepting while the young birds 

 continue to require their parents' fostering care, more than 

 two are not seen together, and even this number only in 

 the breeding season. It is not at all a shy bird. Wooded 

 districts are its natural and necessary resort. 



Its flight is undulated like that of its congeners, the wings 

 being drawn close to the body, and then quickly flapped 

 while extended. 



Its food consists of small insects and their larvae, spiders 

 and ants, which are generally procured from the branches of 

 trees in the fields and orchards, and, abroad, in the vineyards; 

 but occasionally on the ground. The mode of their capture 

 is the same as in the case of the other species of the genus. 



It makes the same sort of jarring noise that the other 

 Woodpeckers do, but of course in a 'minor' key. Its note, 

 which is rather shrill and often repeated, but not frequently 

 uttered while on the wing, resembles the syllables 'keek, 

 keek, keek, keek;' and one of the sounds it makes is likened 

 by the country people to that made by an augur in boring; 

 hence one of its vernacular names. 



The nest, so to call it, is placed at the bottom of a hole 

 in a tree, in some cases found ready made to its hand, and 

 in others adapted by itself to its requirements. Sometimes 

 more than one hole is either wholly or in part thus fashioned, 

 though only one can be finally occupied. 



The eggs, generally five in number, are white: they are 

 hatched in fourteen days. 



Male; weight, not quite five drachms; length, five inches 

 and a half to six inches; bill, lead-coloured, black at the tip, 

 rather weaker than in the other species, sharply ridged on the 

 upper surface : from the corner of the bill a moustache pro- 



