406 BIRD LIFE AT BINGHAJVf S MELCOMBE 



jar-peg, and popinjay among them a sure sign that 

 he is a general favourite. Delightful, too, is the 

 resonant tap, tap, tap, given in rapid succession 

 " the woodpecker tapping the hollow beech-tree " 

 which may be heard to a considerable distance, and 

 is often the first thing to apprise you of his presence. 

 Watch him at his everyday work. He is shy and 

 solitary, but his size and his bright colouring enable 

 you to see a good deal. He generally pitches low 

 down on the trunk of a tree, and works his way 

 upward in spirals, like the warrior soldiery round 

 Trajan's Pillar, showing himself now on this, now 

 on that side of the tree. He searches every nook, 

 " tipper- tapping " as he goes, now to dislodge any 

 solitary insect which may be lurking beneath, now 

 to strip off a big bit of bark which will expose 

 any number of them at once, and now, perhaps, for 

 future purposes, to test the solidity or otherwise 

 of the tree. He always uses his tongue rather than 

 his beak to secure his prey ; and when he nears 

 the top of the fee, having examined, on his way 

 up, one or two of the bigger branches which point 

 upwards, he never goes down again, as a nut-hatch 

 would do with ease, to scan the parts that he has 

 missed he appears to be unable to do so but 

 flies off, in a series of graceful and regular curves, 



