The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. 29 



Tlie egg represented (mi our plate (fig. 265) is from my collection. 



According to Seebohni : "In Nomay, Collett says that it is often .seen on 

 wooden fences, from which tlie dead bark is easily removed and the tempting store 

 of insects and larvae exposed to view; and at snch a time the bird will allow itself 

 to be very closely approached." (Hist. British Birds, vol. ii, p. 361.) 



Seebohni renders the note of this bird hike or kirk, but Howard Saunders 

 makes it keck (following Nanmann) and Lord Lilford twcel. I have never, to my 

 knowledge, heard the call of this species, and therefore must leave my readers to 

 select whichever version they please: bnt tlie real note appears, from what the 

 Rev. H. A. Macpherson says, to be ki)ik. 



I should doubt the possibility of keeping alive a wild adult example of this 

 species, either in cage or aviary; from what Swaysland has to .say respecting it 

 I should judge that he had never made the attempt; and Lord Lilford ob.sen^es : 

 "We have never kept any of these little Woodpeckers in confinement, and every 

 attempt to do so that has come to our knowledge has resulted in disastrous 

 failure, although, no doubt it is to be done. The great difficulty with all purely 

 insectivorous birds is, of course, in the first place, the procuring a constant supply 

 of their natural food or an acceptable substitute for it, but it appears to us that 

 besides this difficulty, which \\\2cy in some instances be conquered, it is abso- 

 lutely essential to their health that they should have a considerable amount of 

 exercise in seeking for their food, and, except in large open-air a\aaries, this is 

 not easily managed." 



The Rev. H. A. Macpherson sends me the following interesting account of 

 specimens which he had in captivity? : — " It was on the 30th of June, 1894, that I 

 received two living examples of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker [Dctidrocopus ?ni>ior). 

 They were male and female. Mr. Gasparin, of East Hendred, who kindly sent 

 them to me, informed me that the}' must be about eight weeks old. Thej- had 

 been taken to him by a countr}- fellow, who said that he had found them in 

 a hole in a tree. Young as th&y were, the sexes were easih' distinguished bv an 

 experienced observer. The male could be recognised by his crimson cro^\^l (the 

 female being only imperfectly marked with that colour) as also by the puritv of 

 the white feathers on the nape ; the black median band, which runs from the 

 crown to the back, was narrower in the male than in the female bird, and tapered 

 more finely towards its lower extremity. The}' were quite fledged, and showed 

 manifest pleasure in preening their prett}- pied plumage. They were full of acti\-ity. 

 and spent a great deal of time in boring in the virgin cork which formed the 

 lining of their cage. 



The cock, in particular, looked a perfect little beau when clinging to the 



Vol. Ill F 



