12 



10 



determined on no account to have the tree felled, after the results in the last instance. Noon 

 found us all assembled, and the ladder quite ready. It was an ingenious affair, constructed of 

 two young fir trees, joined at intervals of four feet by cross bars passing through the flanks, 

 beyond which they projected some distance. There was neither nail nor peg in it, and the 

 whole had been made on the spot by the woodman and his comrade with axe and borer. The 

 length of it was about forty feet. Nothing now remained but to rear it. This was done, after 

 the thin end of the ladder had been placed against the tree, by means of two notched poles, 

 which were fitted, one into either flank of the ladder, as it rested. The flanks were then 

 gradually raised, each by two men, whilst the others pushed against the heavy end ; so that as 

 the first four increased the elevation of the ladder, the second party kept diminishing the 

 distance between its base and the base of the tree upon which the weight was principally 

 thrown, until the ladder itself stood at an angle of about 80° from the ground with the top 

 round still under the hole. The woodman then went up, and announced, to my dismay, that 

 there were young ones in this nest also. After satisfying myself, by inspection, of the truth of 

 his statement, I directed him to enlarge the hole sufficiently for us to see what they were like, 

 which he proceeded to do, after first securing the top of the ladder by means of a rope. Before 

 this was done, the ascent was very ticklish work. The axe revealed to us four young ones, 

 half-grown and very vicious, being well able and willing to use their bills upon intruding 

 fingers. One was taken, to secure a specimen of the bird in this stage, which was not much 

 after all our trouble ; the other three were left poking their ugly heads out of the window so 

 unceremoniously made in their habitation. The rope was then untied, the ladder thrown 

 down and broken, and the storming party prepared to move off to different parts of the forest, 

 according to their several destinations. The old ones meanwhile had never ceased to ring their 

 alarm note, and angrily tap the neighbouring trees ; but before we lost sight of the well-known 

 spot, I was pleased to see the mother boldly re-enter her violated abode to comfort her astonished 

 but undaunted offspring, who suffered, I am inclined to believe, no further inconvenience from 

 our visit beyond a slight increase of air and light into their apartment. 



" Some days afterwards I returned to the very place in company with Mr. Wolley, who was 

 desirous of visiting this wonderful Woodpecker locality, where the tall poplars have been bored 

 on all sides during so many succeeding years. The broken ladder lay at the foot of the tree, 

 which itself bore marks of the recent axe ; but no young ones looked out upon the intruder, no 

 old ones rang out the alarm-note from amongst the neighbouring trees. The family had gone, 

 and the forest was silent." 



Respecting this bird's habits in Norway, Mr. Robert Collett, of Christiania, writes us that 

 " When on the wing it utters a rattling loud cry, something like krrr, krrr, krrr, &c. ; and when 

 it settles on a tree it cries kli-yh, kli-yh, always using the same note when on the wing, and the 

 same when sitting. In the autumn and winter it lives chiefly on ants (Formica rufa), digging 

 far into the ant-hills after those that are torpid deep inside the hill. During the summer it 

 hunts on the rotten and insect-eaten trees and stumps for larvae of Bhagium indicator, and 

 devours quantities of Bostrichus octodentatus. On the fell-sides it does not occur above the 

 tree growth. If its eggs are taken, and one or two left, it continues to lay fresh ones ; and I 

 know of fourteen eggs having thus been deposited in the same nest, the last of these only 



