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her six eggs. This Woodpecker is often seen sitting on a dry fence-pole, from which it detaches 

 the bark and devours the larvae and complete insects of Bostrichus octodentatus and various 

 species of Hylastes ; and when thus employed one may approach within a few paces of it." 



Our own experience in England proves that the present species nests at a considerable 

 height above the ground, and near Cookham generally selects the rotten boughs of poplars. It 

 often begins hewing out a hole early in the winter, if the weather be mild ; and the late Mr. 

 Briggs observed a pair hard at work on the 11th of November 1868 ; he showed us the newly 

 made hole ; and we picked up fresh chips from the bottom of the tree. We have also received a 

 letter from Mr. Joseph Ford, jun., of Cookham, dated "January 24th, 1871," in which he 

 writes : — " Mr. Godfrey has been telling me for about a fortnight of a bird which he frequently 

 hears, but of which he cannot get a sight ; and from what he told me I knew it must be a Lesser 

 Spotted Woodpecker. We were both of us unable for a long time to find the nest ; but I at last 

 discovered it in a horse-chestnut, the next tree to the one in which Godfrey had heard the noise. 

 It is on a dead limb ; and by walking round I can see that he has worked out a very nice round 

 hole." Judging from Naumann's note above given, it is probable that these holes are made for 

 the purpose of roosting in, rather than for nidification. 



Sometimes, however, even in England, the bird is seen nesting not far above the ground, as 

 the following letter of Mr. George Dawson Rowley's sufficiently shows: — "On May 12th, 1862, 

 my father's keeper took me to the nest of a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (P. minor), in a pollard 

 willow, about two feet above my head, on the banks of the Ouse river, Huntingdonshire. I saw 

 one bird fly out of the hole, which measured one and a half inch from the entrance, and after- 

 wards turned at right angles down the trunk. The place being conspicuous, I was obliged to 

 cut it out, and found on a bed of fine chips two eggs. The chips probably vary with the tree ; 

 these were very soft and regular, and formed a most suitable nest, being spongy and decayed. 

 I have both nest and eggs in my collection. The bark had numerous small holes made by the 

 birds, apparently to find out the rotten part." Dr. E. Rey tells us that he has generally found 

 the nest-hole at a considerable height in an oak tree, but he once found one in a pollard willow 

 about three feet from the ground. Dresser had repeated opportunities of observing this Wood- 

 pecker during the breeding-season in Finland, and took its eggs as far north as Uleaborg. When 

 he was living in the country near Wyburg, a pair bred in a small grove close to the house, the nest- 

 hole being bored in the rotten bough of an old birch tree. Before they commenced nidification 

 they were continually to be seen about the grove, and were so noisy that their presence could not 

 be overlooked. In spite of repeated visits to their nest, which was not above ten feet from the 

 ground, they seemed to care but little for intruders, and would allow themselves to be 

 approached within a few yards. Both male and female appeared to take their turn at incu- 

 bation, which extended over a term of about a fortnight. When the young were hatched both 

 parents fed them assiduously, and continued to do so long after they had left the nest. Herr A. 

 von Homeyer also gives an account of a nest he took near Glogau, in Silesia : — " This little Wood- 

 pecker nests at Hermsdorff, near Glogau, where I found a nest on the 15th of June. The young 

 were calling out of the nest-hole ; and the oldest had flown out, and took food from the parents 

 like his brethren as he climbed about a neighbouring tree. The nest was in an almost dried-up 

 oak ; and the small entrance-hole was towards the north-west. Is this accidental 1 I found the 



