60 



8 



have a daily round, at one time traversing the great woods, at others the line of elms growing in 

 the hedgerow. It seldom descends to the large holes, but flits from top to top with an onward 

 movement, in the course of which a considerable distance is traversed between morning and 

 night. This bird especially attracted my attention in the days of my boyhood ; and from that 

 period to the present time I have watched it with great interest, in order that I might become 

 acquainted with its breeding-places and economy, respecting which so little has been recorded 

 that I may be excused if I should be somewhat diffuse on the subject. To render credit where 

 credit is due, I first acknowledge my obligations to Mr. Briggs, gardener to M. de Vitre, Esq., of 

 Formosa, near Cookham, in Berkshire, for the assistance he has rendei'ed me in the acquisition 

 of the knowledge I desired. During the last few years several pairs have bred in this beautiful 

 spot, their holes being always made in the upright stems of the broken branches of the loftiest 

 poplars at such a height as to be all but inaccessible to any one but a sailor or an Australian ' black 

 fellow.' Aware of my anxiety to become acquainted with every detail connected with the history 

 of this species for the purposes of the present work, Mr. Briggs, at a considerable risk both to 

 body and limb, has mounted several of these mast-like stems, sawn them off, and lowered them 

 to the ground without the least injury to the eggs or the young birds. 



"About the end of April 1861 a pair commenced excavating in one of the lofty poplars 

 alluded to, at which they laboured assiduously for two or three weeks, bringing the chips one by 

 one to the opening, and throwing them out in quick succession ; after the work appeared to be 

 completed, a certain time was allowed to elapse for the deposition of the eggs, when the dead 

 branch was sawn off a few inches below where the bottom of the excavation was supposed to be. 

 A hole perfectly round, and an inch and a half in diameter, had been made about six inches 

 from the extremity of the branch (which had been blown off by the wind), and was continued 

 downwards for about a foot, gradually increasing in diameter to the bottom, where it terminated 

 in a round cavity about the size of a breakfast cup. Unfortunately sufficient time had not been 

 allowed for the deposit of the full complement of eggs, three only having been laid on a few 

 chips of wood almost as fine as sawdust. 



" In the same year the same pair of birds drilled a circular hole through the flinty bark of 

 the same branch, and excavated down the stem to a similar depth. On sawing off the branch on 

 the 10th of June, four young birds nearly ready to fly were found in the cavity. They were very 

 active, frequently ascending to the entrance of the hole, and uttering a loud querulous cry. 

 These young birds were sent to the Zoological Society, but did not survive many days. In the 

 spring of 1863 the same pair made a hole and deposited four eggs in the dead branch of another 

 of the Formosan poplars at a height of fifty-five feet. These delicate flesh-coloured eggs were 

 very beautiful, and measured three quarters of an inch in length by half an inch in breadth." 



Our friend Mr. Robert Collett also sends us a letter respecting the species in Norway : — " It 

 is found," he writes, " both in the lowlands and on the sides of the fells, up into the birch region. 

 It bores its nest-hole in deciduous trees, generally birch or aspen. The entrance is a circular 

 hole, seldom above an inch in diameter ; and the chips it makes are as small as sawdust ; it is 

 generally about nine inches deep. In 1859 I found several nests at Lillehammer, in the northern 

 part of Mjosen, one of which was in a tree, at the foot of which was a large ant-hill; and though 

 numbers of ants were continually running in and out of the hole, the female bird sat quietly on 



