THE GREATER SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 475 



my fingers ; unlike Sitta, he will not descend to pick up a grub if 

 he drops one. 



July 10th. Weather very hot, and the Woodpecker is nod- 

 ding on the cork at 10 a.m., now waking up with a start, then 

 drawing his eyelids apologetically over the bright irides to doze 

 again. He does not kill the mealworms before bolting them, 

 but likes me to crush their heads. 



July 11th, on coming down, I called " Jack," and he responded 

 at once and flew to receive mealworms. He rejected some hard- 

 boiled egg, but partook of some crumbled cracknel biscuit, dry. 

 At lunch he tried some sweet biscuit, moistened in my mouth, 

 darting his tongue between the wires to take it off my fingers, 

 and giving me an admonitory peck when the supply threatened 

 to run low. 



July 12th. When my landlady brought in the Woodpecker's 

 bread and milk, about 7 a.m., he flew to the cage side to meet 

 her : to tease him she placed the saucer on the hearthrug, in 

 full view of him, and left it ; thereupon he set up a clamour of 

 displeasure, like a spoilt child. Despite his boldness at meal- 

 times, the wild instincts are never long forgotten ; thus, if I 

 approach him when conversing with any one, as soon as I am 

 near the cage he feels an imperative impulse to duck behind 

 the bough on which he is perching, so as to keep it between 

 him and me, and thus to conceal himself. 



July 13th. The Woodpecker has taken the pulp of some 

 black cherries from my finger tips. At 2 p.m. I gave the birds 

 some broken hazel nuts : the Nuthatch stealthily carried one off 

 and placed it in a chink in the cork; Dendrocopus " spotted " it 

 at once, and flew to Sitta with a cry of glee ; away flew Sitta, 

 and the robber pretended to consume the kernel. Sitta's courage 

 mustering, she betook herself to the cage-floor to pick up the 

 small chips of nut dropped by the Woodpecker, which, after this 

 piece of tyranny was accomplished, refreshed himself with his 

 afternoon bath. I am much struck by the adroit way in which 

 he catches a morsel of food which he has let drop : he does so 

 either on his chest pressed suddenly to the bark to intercept it, 

 or across the tarsi ; on more than one occasion I have seen him 

 move a leg to intercept a falling mealworm, and this with 

 unvarying success. 



On July 14th he began to kill the mealworms for himself, 



