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IHE ZOOLOGIST. 



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THIRD SERIES. 



Vol. VII.] DECEMBER, 1883. [No. 84. 



THE GREATER SPOTTED WOODPECKER IN 



CONFINEMENT. 

 By the Rev. H. A. Macpherson, B.A. 



On July 7th, 1883, I received a young living male of the 

 Greater Spotted Woodpecker from Mr. M. Heogh, of Campden, 

 Gloucestershire, who informed me that it had been captured 

 " after leaving the nest, in a bunch of stinging-nettles, on a 

 place called Dover s Hill, two miles from Campden." He had 

 kept it himself " about a fortnight," and believed it to be "about 

 six weeks old " when he sent it to me. I scarcely think that it 

 was quite so old, but it must have been a much earlier bird than 

 those mentioned by Lord Lilford (p. 427) as taken from the 

 nest on July 17th, 1883. The nestling plumage was quite 

 normal, but the flanks were certainly "indistinctly streaked," as 

 Yarrell says is the case in some examples (Brit. Birds, vol. ii. 

 p. 476). 



When first placed in my aviary it was unable to stand, the 

 limbs being cramped by long confinement in a shallow box. In 

 a short time, however, it had sufficiently recovered to demolish 

 a saucerful of bread and milk. When I came in, it ran up 

 a strip of cork bark, moving thence to cling to the wires of the 

 cage-dome and its flat corners ; presently it assumed a posture 

 of repose, clinging back downwards to the under surface of a 

 broad natural bough placed horizontally across the dome, the 

 head and tail being thus in the same plane. About 7 p.m. it 

 showed symptoms of drowsiness, and buried its head in the 



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