LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 111 
LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 
Picus minor, Linn. 
Pl. XVIL., fig. 8. 
Geogr. distr.—Europe generally; occurs sparingly in England, 
being less rare in the southern counties, ‘‘ where oaks, aspens, ash, 
and other non-evergreen trees, are scattered through the conifer 
growth ;** it has been known to breed in Wiltshire. 
Food.—Insects and their larve. 
Nest.—A round hole 14 inches in diameter, and about a foot deep, 
terminating in a circular cavity ; eggs deposited upon rotten wood. 
Position of nest.—In the trunk of a decayed tree at a considerable 
height above the ground. 
Number of eggs.—4-6. 
Time of nidification.—IV-V. 
This is a very shy bird; but when searching for insects 
it has been known to allow itself to be closely approached. 
It is particularly active in its movements, which are not 
unlike those of a Creeper. 
According to Newton, “the Western Midlands, the 
counties of Gloucester, Hereford, Salop, Worcester, and 
Warwick, appear to be its chief resort. Cornwall perhaps 
excepted, it breeds in every English county as far as York, 
but there becomes very rare, and is only a casual visitor in 
Lancashire or to the northward.”—(Yarrell’s Hist. Brit. 
Birds, 4th ed., vol. ii., p. 480.) 
‘“‘Tts hole,” says Seebohm, “is made in many kinds of 
trees, and at different heights from the ground. Some- 
times it chooses a dead stump, or the stem of an apple or 
a pear tree, more frequently high up in the branches of a 
poplar, a beech, or an elm. Sometimes it bores into a 
pollard willow by the stream, or selects a pine or birch tree 
for its purpose. The hole is bored by the industrious little 
miners for a distance of a foot or more (sometimes only 
eight or nine inches). The hole is round, gradually enlarges 
as it proceeds downwards, and at the extremity widens out 
into a small hollow, where the eggs are laid. The diameter 
of the passage to this chamber varies from about an inch 
and a half to two inches.—(Hist. Brit. Birds, vol. ii., p. 361.) 
As with the Greater Spotted Woodpecker, the eggs are 
laid upon the chips and powdered wood at the extremity of 
the hole. 
* Dresser’s ‘ Birds of Europe.’ 
