HABITS OF WOODPECKER 407 



to a neighbouring tree. It should be mentioned 

 that, at one time of year, the green woodpecker 

 forms a marked exception to the rule that climbing 

 birds spurn the ground ; for he is passionately fond 

 of ants and their eggs, and you may see him 

 searching the pastures, and passing, with long and 

 very awkward hops, from one ant-heap to another 

 made of swelling, but still, more or less solid turf, 

 and tearing them open with his bill ; or he will 

 visit the much larger and looser heaps, made by the 

 big black ants, out of fir-tree spines, in the fir- wood, 

 and, plunging his long red tongue at full length 

 into them, will draw it back again, quite black with 

 warmly protesting ants. 



But, best of all, watch the woodpecker, if you 

 have the chance, at the time of the year when she 

 is most accessible when, that is, she is either at 

 home, or preparing the home that is to be. I was 

 able, last year, to watch the whole process from 

 beneath a thick yew-tree in the shrubbery, just 

 fifteen yards from the chestnut she had selected. 

 When by "sounding" a tree a beech, a birch, 

 or an elm by choice the woodpecker has found 

 one which she believes to be hollow at the heart, 

 she pecks her way towards it by a geometrically 

 round hole. More often than not she is mis- 



