THE LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 29 
The egg represented on our plate (fig. 265) is from my collection. 
“According to Seebohm:—‘In Norway, Collett says that it is often seen on 
wooden fences, from which the dead bark is easily removed and the tempting store 
of insects and larve exposed to view; and at such a time the bird will allow itself 
to be very closely approached.” (Hist. British Birds, vol. ii, p. 361.) 
Seebohm renders the note of this bird sdéke or kirk, but Howard Saunders 
makes it heck (following Naumann) and Lord Lilford ¢weet. JI have never, to my 
knowledge, heard the call of this species, and therefore must leave my readers to 
select whichever version they please: but the real note appears, from what the 
Rev. H. A. Macpherson says, to be znk. 
I should doubt the possibility of keeping alive a wild adult example of this 
species, either in cage or aviary; from what Swaysland has to say respecting it 
I should judge that he had never made the attempt; and Lord Lilford observes: 
““We have never kept any of these little Woodpeckers in confinement, and every 
attempt to do so that has come to our knowledge has resulted in disastrous 
failure, although, no doubt it is to be done. The great difficulty with all purely 
insectivorous birds is, of course, in the first place, the procuring a constant supply 
of their natural food or an acceptable substitute for it, but it appears to us that 
besides this difficulty, which may in some instances be conquered, it is abso- 
lutely essential to their health that they should have a considerable amount of 
exercise in seeking for their food, and, except in large open-air aviaries, this is 
not easily managed.” 
The Rev. H. A. Macpherson sends me the following interesting account of 
specimens which he had in captivity :—‘‘It was on the 3oth of June, 1894, that I 
received two living examples of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (Dendvocopus minor). 
They were male and female. Mr. Gasparin, of East Hendred, who kindly sent 
them to me, informed me that they must be about eight weeks old. They had 
been taken to him by a country fellow, who said that he had found them in 
a hole in a tree. Young as they were, the sexes were easily distinguished by an 
experienced observer. The male could be recognised by his crimson crown (the 
female being only imperfectly marked with that colour) as also by the purity of 
the white feathers on the nape; the black median band, which runs from the 
crown to the back, was narrower in the male than in the female bird, and tapered 
more finely towards its lower extremity. They were quite fledged, and showed 
manifest pleasure in preening their pretty pied plumage. They were full of activity, 
and spent a great deal of time in boring in the virgin cork which formed the 
lining of their cage. 
The cock, in particular, looked a perfect little beau when clinging to the 
Vow. HI E 
