A SPRING TOUR IN NORWAY. 201 
triumphantly pointed out a Great Black Woodpecker, shot just at 
the hole, and still clinging to the bark with its claws. It was the 
male, and its mouth and throat were found to be crammed full of 
ants; the latter being distended with them gave it a very grotesque 
appearance. The hole was about twenty feet from the ground, 
square at the bottom, but concave at the top, and about four inches 
across. About twenty-two inches deep were four well-grown 
young, which would probably have been flying in a couple of 
weeks. Two of them had incipient red feathers down to the base 
of the bill, and two with them only on the occiput, so the sexes 
were probably divided. The female was shot in the evening, as 
she tarried disconsolately near the place. The irides are a pale 
yellow. At Grut we procured the skin of a female killed there 
last season, and in a thick birch-branch near Fokstuen, on June 
7th, we found a hole evidently, by its peculiar shape, dug out by 
this species, the other Woodpeckers all drilling a round one. 
Green Woodpecker. Gecinus viridis.—Not fifty yards from 
the tree last described we saw a round hole, about thirty feet from 
the ground, in another big pine. The ladder was fetched, but 
unfortunately was too short; however, it was reared straight up 
against the tree, fastened firmly round the trunk at the top, so as 
not to slip, and mounted by the writer, who, having wedged his 
legs in the topmost rungs, commenced the operation of enlarge- 
ment with hammer and chisel. The position was so awkward 
that, to get through the one inch and a half of sound wood and 
the two inches of rotten, took above two hours’ hard work, but the 
seven fresh eggs laid on the bare wood inside, eighteen inches 
below the hole, were sufficient compensation for cramped legs and 
half-broken back. Whilst this was going on, first the female and 
then the male Green Woodpecker came jarring to the top of a 
neighbouring tree, and were both shot. The irides were pinkish. 
Great Spotted Woodpecker. Picus major.—Two were seen in 
the same wood in which we got the Goshawk, and on the same 
day, May 19th. 
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. Picus minor.—Not observed till 
-we reached Fokstuen, where several were shot in the early part of 
June. On the 6th a nest of four eggs was taken from a hole in a 
small birch; they were quite fresh. 
Three-toed Woodpecker. Picoides tridactylus.—A male was 
shot on June 6th in the birch-wood near Fokstuen. 
2D 
