A Curious Instance of Scansorial Instinct. 45 



and tail, with the guiding instinct as well. Bat to the 

 latter the parents add instruction, taking the young birds 

 out of the tree cavity when nearly full fledged, and show- 

 ing them the way to get about. That they do this I have 

 had evidence enough j and a singular case confirmatory of 

 it has just been made known to me by Mr. W. Blake, of 

 Eoss, an observant young naturalist, whose word I can 

 well rely on. Out for a walk in the woods, he noticed a 

 hole in one of the trees, some twelve or fifteen feet above 

 the ground, which, from certain indices, he suspected to 

 be the nesting-place of a bird. Climbing up to it, he 

 plunged his arm in to the shoulder, to find the cavity turn 

 downwards, and at its bottom felt feathers — a live bird, 

 which, on his clutching it, struggled violently to escape. 

 Drawing it forth, and too much occupied with his own 

 precarious footing, it got out of his grasp, and flew ofif 

 with a loud, laughing cry, as in mockery — the well-known 

 glu-glu-glu-gluk of the Green Woodpecker. But inside 

 the tree he heard other sounds — the " churming," as he 

 words it, of the young birds ; and, re-inserting his hand, 

 he drew them forth one after another — in all five of them 

 nearly fledged. Placed upon the ground at some two or 

 three yards distance from the bottom of the tree, they 

 instantly ran back to it, and commenced climbing up the 

 trunk. They could make no use of their wings, alto- 

 gether relying on their claws and supporting tail ; and 

 with these, doing their best, they soon ascended to the 

 height of six or seven feet — not by a single effort, but 

 several in succession, with pauses and rests between. 

 Undoubtedly, they would have returned to the hole from 

 which they had been taken, but Mr. Blake, having other 

 views, recaptured and carried them home with him. 

 Two strange facts are exhibited in this occurrence : 



