Notes on the Mild Winter and the Birds.



207



black and the yellow ant, which they find in the large hillocks in

rough grass fields and on open commons ; as soon as the snow covers

these to any depth they are done.


Those birds that are able to wriggle on until a thaw sets in,

are those that are in a district where the large wood ants nests are

to be found in pine woods, they know where these nests abound and

will regularly visit them and will bore deep holes into these large

heaps of pine needles, the holes often being as large as a rabbit

would make, and here they are able to find the ants in winter in a

numbed or torpid state and lick them up.


The Lesser and Greater Spotted Woodpeckers appear to get

through severe weather better, especially the latter species, as they

will feed upon nuts, acorns, and even beechmasts when insect food

is scarce and never touch ants, therefore there is a great difference

in the way in which the Green and the Spotted Woodpeckers feed

their young. If an observer discovers a nest of the Green and is

able to keep himself out of sight and yet be close to the nest hole, as

I have done, he will see the old birds come to the hole, with nothing

showing in their bill at all, go into the nest and remain in the hole

for quite a minute and a half, come out and fly off, and will often

not return to feed the young for nearly two hours. The reason is

this, the ants and their eg'gs are licked up from the ant’s nest and

stored in the throat and probably in the bill as well, and are ejected

in ball-like masses into the mouths of the young, and these masses

of ants brought at a time are evidently large, at any rate, enough to

satisfy the young for some considerable time.


The Spotted Woodpeckers, on the other hand, visit the young

in the nest-hole every few minutes, and grubs and caterpillars can

be seen hanging in the point of the bill of the parent birds.


The male Great Spotted Woodpeckers have already begun

their Spring quarrels. In fact, nearly everything is earlier this year

except the Cuckoo, and although it has been reported as having been

heard, it is not likely to be here any earlier this year than any

other, and we shall have to wait until between the 12th and 17th

of April before we hear the notes from a real live Cuckoo.


March 4th, 1913.



