THE GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 25 
opening the stomach, my suspicions were confirmed by the discovery, among 
other insects, of several small beetles, which are found only upon the hills. I 
may mention that these beetles are very abundant in Shetland, although I do not 
remember having seen any of the kind in England; they are about the size and 
shape of one half of a split pea, black, edged with scarlet. I afterwards saw 
Spotted Woodpeckers in various parts of the hills and walls, and even in high 
sea cliffs, I also saw them on roofs of houses and upon dung-hills, and, although 
several were killed upon corn-stacks I never found any grain in the stomach. 
They were frequently to be met with upon the ground among heather, where 
at all times they were easily approached.” 
In its flight and its method of procuring its food in the summer time this 
bird much resembles the preceding species, its nidification is also similar, 
although it appears rarely to have eggs before the middle of May and is said 
more often to alter a natural hole to suit its purpose than the Green Wood- 
pecker: nevertheless it generally prepares a hole for itself of the usual pattern— 
a neat circular entrance, a smooth passage and an enlarged terminal chamber 
for the reception of the eggs: the latter are distinctly shorter than those of 
G. viridis, hard, polished, creamy white, and from five to eight in number. A 
specimen from my collection is figured on Plate VIII., fig. 264. Incubation lasts 
about a fortnight, both sexes undertaking this duty and sitting extremely close, 
so that they may frequently be caught upon the eggs by hand. 
The usual note of this bird is described as a sharp chik or chink, some- 
times varied by another cry ¢va; it also appears to communicate with its mate 
by means of its bill which it rapidly raps upon the tree trunks. 
The food consists chiefly of insects, their larve and pupz, but apparently 
not ants; also spiders, earthworms, berries, small fruits, acorns, nuts, beech- 
mast, and fir-seeds. In confinement many other articles of diet are given: 
thus Stevenson says:—‘‘One which was kept alive for some time by a person 
in this city, in 1857, fed upon barley-meal and insects. The latter were 
extracted from pieces of old bark supplied fresh every day or two, and fastened 
to the inside of the cage.” 
Lord Lilford observes :-—‘‘The young of this Woodpecker are much less 
difficult to keep in confinement than the species last treated of, as they take 
readily to a fruit and vegetable diet and thrive thereupon; they become very 
tame, and if set loose in a room will examine the furniture closely and 
methodically, and clamber over the clothes of their keeper, search his pockets 
for food, and come down from the cornice or top of book-shelves, pictures, 
&c., at once on the offer of a fly or meal-worm.” 
