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attention to the bird in the interior of the great pine-forests of Norway." Beyond the ordinary 

 call-note of the bird, the present species utters no other sound ; but an instance is given in the 

 'Field' for October 25th, 1867, of one whistling like a Starling. 



The Great Spotted Woodpecker pairs in March or April, at which time its call-note and the 

 peculiar rattling sound above referred to may be often heard. The nest is bored in some branch 

 or trunk of a tree, the heart of which is rotten, and consists of a circular hole, deepening down 

 for a foot or eighteen inches into the tree, on the bottom of which, on the wood itself without 

 any other preparation, the eggs are deposited. Generally five eggs constitute the complement, 

 sometimes four ; and, according to Naumann, both male and female incubate in turn, the term of 

 incubation being from fourteen to sixteen days. The young are very carefully tended by the 

 parents, and are by them fed with insects &c. Pastor W. Passler gives an instance of a pair 

 taking possession of a nest-box in his neighbour's garden, and says he never otherwise knew them 

 to breed in any place but a hole made by themselves. The food of this bird is chiefly insectivorous, 

 during the spring and summer almost entirely so ; and as it feeds on the most destructive of 

 insects, it is the best natural guardian of our woods that we possess. It feeds on caterpillars, 

 larvae, and the eggs of the various moths and butterflies, and is the chief exterminator of the so 

 destructive insects of the Bostrichus group. It also, however, eats nuts, chiefly hazel-nuts, and is 

 very fond of extracting the seeds from the pine-cones, in order to do which it fixes the cone in a 

 crack in a tree, or else bores a hole convenient for that purpose, and then pecks out the seeds at 

 its leisure. According to Dr. Gloger it eats hazel-nuts, and also, like the Green Woodpecker, 

 feeds on ants in the winter. Mr. Sterland observes : — " They are not such exclusive insect- 

 eaters as the preceding species, but vary their diet with the seeds of various trees, especially 

 those of the pine;" and Mr. Collett writes to us: — "Besides feeding on all sorts of insects, it 

 also eats the seeds of the spruce ; and in order to get these it jams the cone into a crack in the 

 bark of a tree, or the bird itself makes a hole in the tree for that purpose. In the autumn it feeds 

 also on berries, and is therefore often caught in snares set for Thrushes. It is not shy, and will 

 often allow itself to be approached within a few feet, but ought never to be molested, on account 

 of its great utility as a destroyer of injurious insects." On the tickets of three of Mr. Gurney's 

 specimens the contents of the stomachs were marked as earthworms and aphides, a great cater- 

 pillar, and the larvae of the Leopard Moth. 



. Mr. A. W. M. Clark Kennedy also writes to us : — 



" I find by my note-book for 1868, that on the 14th of June in that year, whilst walking in 

 Little Glenham Park, Suffolk, I found a young Great Spotted Woodpecker, fully fledged and 

 ably to fly, sitting on the grass beneath an old tree. It must have fallen from its nest, the 

 entrance to which I could see at the height of some thirty feet from the ground, and in which 

 the rest of the young birds were chirping and making a great noise. On my approach it took 

 several short flights, but was eventually captured, the parent bird flying from tree to tree along- 

 side of me during the chase, apparently quite fearless, and trying to assist her offspring ; but as 

 soon as the latter was secured, the old one flew straight away, and I never saw her again. I fear 

 the old bird, seeing the fate of one of her young, was disgusted, and deserted the remainder in 

 the nest ; for though I watched the hole for a long time next day, she did not return, nor did I 



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