AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 269 



young birds. The other two nests were also in 

 oaks, and contained respectively three and four eggs, 

 which are of a pure white, smaller, of course, and 

 rather more pointed than those of the Green Wood- 

 pecker *. AVe have reason to believe that the present 

 species suffers to a greater extent than the preceding 

 from the acquisitive propensities of the Starling, 

 and in the year above mentioned heard of an instance 

 of this " forcible entry " into a hole made by these 

 Woodpeckers near Kingston, Surrey. Besides the 

 names of "Greater Spotted" and "Pied" Wood- 

 pecker, we have heard Northamptonshire game- 

 keepers mention this bird as " French Pie " and 

 " Whittle," which latter name is also applied in 

 some counties to the Green W^oodpecker. The young 

 of this Woodpecker are much less difhcult 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. We have 

 met with this species in various parts of France, 

 Northern Germany, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland, in 

 some parts of which country it seemed to be more 

 abundant than in any other localities with which we 

 have any acquaintance. In our own country we have 

 noticed this bird in Middlesex, Herts, Bedfordshire, 

 Oxfordshire, Hampshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Devon ; 



* Since the year above mentioned, I have heard of one or more 

 nests or young broods of the present species in the neighbourhood 

 of Lilford, annually for ten years. 



