110 BRITISH BIRDS’ EGGS. 
GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 
Picus masor, Linn. 
Pl. XVIL., fig. 2. 
Geogr. distr. —Throughout Europe and Siberia to Japan, and 
probably the entire Palearctic region: in the southern and midland 
counties of England and in Scotland. It is still scarce, though 
apparently less so than formerly. 
Food.—Insects in various stages, berries, nuts, acorns, and fruits. 
Nest.—A mere circular hole bored twelve to eighteen inches into 
a tree. 
Position of nest.—In the branch or trunk of a tree the heart of 
which is decayed. 
Number of eggs.—5-8; usually 5. 
Time of nidification—IV-V ; middle of May. 
This species, though less rare in some localities than 
others, is by no means so common as the Green Wood- 
pecker; nevertheless it is supposed to breed in every 
county in England and Wales. According to Newton 
(Yarrell’s Hist. Brit. Birds, 4th ed., p. 471) ‘“‘it seems 
seldom, if ever, to inhabit precisely the same spots as the 
Green Woodpecker; yet its haunts are very varied in 
character—large oak woods, hedgerows where ashes form 
the prevalent timber, holts or small plantations of poplars 
and alders, and the lines of pollard-willows that skirt so 
many rivers. In many of its habits—its solitary and mis- 
trustful disposition, its mode of flight, and of climbing—it 
closely resembles its larger relative ; but it usually affects 
trees of smaller growth, and more frequently alights and 
seeks its food on the upper branches than on the trunk, and 
indeed, would seem sometimes to sit crossways on a bough 
after the usual fashion of birds. It is rarely seen on the 
ground.” 
Seebohm says that the hole for the nest “is often made 
where a branch has been blown away and the rain has 
rotted a small hole into the trunk. This is often enlarged 
if it be not already big enough for the purpose. The hole 
varies in extent, sometimes being as much as eighteen 
inches deep, but frequently only a foot, and, more rarely, 
the eggs are within reach of the hand. The passage is 
wonderfully round and smooth, and the end is enlarged a 
little into a sort of chamber, and here the eggs are deposited. 
The bird makes no nest; the eggs lie upon the powdered 
wood at the bottom of the hole.” — (Hist. Brit. Birds, vol. ii., 
p-. 357.) 
