106 BIRDS OF MIDDLESEX. 



species, watched a pair of birds almost incessantly 

 from the time they commenced excavating till the 

 first egg was laid. At five o'clock one Friday morn- 

 ing, he saw the hen bird alight upon an oak, at about 

 ten feet from the ground, and pick off a piece of 

 bark about the size of a shilling, and fly away with 

 it. This manoeuvre was repeated several times. 

 Both birds then laboured at the tree to make a hole, 

 and by seven o'clock on the following Sunday morn- 

 ing they had cut through two inches of wood, and 

 made a hole eight inches deep, in which at the hour 

 last-named a single egg was found. This tends to 

 prove that the Woodpecker, in selecting a tree in 

 which to deposit its eggs, does not always make use 

 of one which is unsound. 



GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, Picus major. For- 

 merly this species was not uncommon, particularly 

 in the neighbourhood of Barn Hill, and round 

 Uxendon and Forty Farms, in the parishes of 

 Kingsbury and Harrow. Now it is one of our 

 rarest birds. 



Yarrell mentions the fact of this species having 

 bred in Kensington Gardens. It is occasionally 

 seen in the woods at Hampstead, and I have ob- 

 served it at Wembley Park. 



In April, 1860, Mr. Spencer saw five of these 

 birds in Caen Wood, Hampstead, which he believes 

 were four males and one female ; the former were 

 engaged in a fierce conflict, apparently for the 



