io 4 A BIRD COLLECTOR'S MEDLEY. 



a week, which it will be easy to get with putty and a wire," but a fortnight 

 later you find, on enquiry, that something has gone wrong with the programme, 

 and no eggs are forthcoming so far. I believe that this bird readily changes 

 its nesting-site on suspicion ; and, as there are numbers of old holes 

 available in these woods, it no doubt succeeds in baffling nesters in this 

 way, for in July I almost always see youngsters along the outskirts of the 

 copses. It is noticeable that most of the holes are on the sides of the trees 

 farthest from the nearest path, and it is therefore quite easy to overlook them. 



In 1905 one of these Woodpeckers must have had a mauvais quart 

 cTheure, though it emerged triumphant in the end. A boy who knew little 

 of ornithology saw a brightly coloured bird, which he judged to be a Parrot, 

 fly into a hole in a tree. He left it unmolested at the time, but returned 

 next day with a friend, a butterfly-net, and apparatus for the extraction 

 of the eggs. The hole was out of reach of the ground, but he swarmed up 

 and popped the net over it, while his accomplice hammered the tree 

 with a thick stick. They kept the performance up until they were persuaded 

 that Mrs. Parrot was not at home, a decision which was quickened by 

 the sudden collapse of the climber's thigh-muscles. Down came the net, and 

 up came the Woodpecker, which decamped with an exultant laugh and 

 left the two conspirators feeling rather flat. However, there remained 

 the eggs; they were still obtainable, if they could get at them. Number 

 two now swarmed the trunk, and stuck to an uncomfortable position, until, 

 at Nature's dictation, he too slid down. Such poking and scraping as he 

 had managed to cram into his short excursion up aloft had produced some 

 small pieces of white egg-shell and a little yolk, and this is the nearest 

 approach to a Woodpecker's egg that I have ever known obtained near 

 Polegate. 



Some of the clearings in these woods are to my mind unusually 

 attractive. One that contains a knoll carpeted in spring with bluebells, and 

 producing a wonderful haze of blue in the distance, is a sight that no one 

 could forget, while the track that leads to it contains the most effective 

 of all woodland trees a wild fruit-tree. 



Other clearings, from which all the trees have been removed, have been 

 overgrown with bracken, and thus afford a suitable breeding-ground for 

 the Nightjar. There is little chance of finding the eggs amongst the thick 

 cover, unless one happens to put up the bird, and the male is far more often 

 flushed than the female. The latter, which can be recognized by the 

 absence of the pure white spots on the primaries, seems to sit the closer, so 

 close indeed that she sometimes falls a victim to a prowling stoat or rat ; 



