GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, 289 



themselves, choosing a damaged or unsound part, which will 

 most readily yield to the strokes of their beak ; and after 

 rounding perfectly the inner cup, which is generally at the 

 end of an entrance of six or seven inches, wide enough for 

 ingress and egress, the female deposits her polished white 

 eggs, four or five in number, on the bare wood ; and after 

 fifteen or sixteen days incubation, the young crawl forth with 

 large heads, eyes shut, and bodies almost naked. Both 

 parents foster their young, not only while in the nest, but 

 long after, in order to introduce them into their future labo- 

 rious existence. 



The Spotted Woodpecker is from nine inches to nine 

 inches and a half in length ; the wings measure six inches 

 from the carpus to the tip ; the tail three inches and three 

 quarters ; the feathers .of which decrease in length towards 

 the sides, so much that the outer feather only measures one 

 inch and a quarter. The beak is proportionately shorter and 

 thicker than that of the other British species of Wood- 

 peckers ; its length is one inch two lines ; and its thickness 

 at the base five lines. The colour of the beak is lead-grey, 

 dark at the tip ; the base yellow. The tongue of the Great 

 Spotted. Woodpecker is only two inches long, flesh-coloured 

 about the throat and swallow, and bluish towards the tip, as 

 is also the inside of the beak. The iris is blood-red in adult 

 male birds ; dark brown in middle-aged, and grey in young 

 birds. The legs are feathered part of the way down the 

 front ; they are one inch long, strong made, and strongly 

 sealed ; the claws are much arched and large, grooved be- 

 neath and sharp pointed ; the colour of the legs is yellowish 

 grey, claws black. 



The feathering of the adult male is as follows : — the fore- 

 head is covered with bristle-like feathers, in colour brownish 

 or rust yellow ; the region of the eyes, cheeks, and corners 

 of the mouth are a soiled white ; the top of the head jet 



