OBNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM NORFOLK. 95 



its whole body swings with every blow, with such vigour are they 

 given. The stiff rectrices, which are graduated to a point, and 

 have hard webs, are certainly a support in this sledge-hammering 

 process, and equally are they of use in climbing. Often it may 

 be seen hammering when it has dropped its cone, but this is 

 either pure ebullition of spirits, or in order to keep its beak 

 down. Woodpeckers are occasionally seen with malformed 

 beaks, but a dead bough is a tempting sounding-board. This 

 bird is a female, which disposes of the supposition (Zool. 1901, 



Fir-cone chipped by Picus major. 



p. 97) that it is only the male which hammers. When first 

 observed by my neighbour, Mr. Knight, it was in a large nut- 

 bush in his garden, attending to a cob-nut, and it was not until 

 this bush and the next one were pretty well cleared that it 

 betook itself to the fir-cones. Here, under its favourite branch, 

 the ground is now (Nov. 19th) strewn with dropped cones. Now 

 and then, when it is not at work hammering, a "quat quat" can 

 be heard, and this is the only vocal sound which has proceeded 

 from our handsome visitor, and might easily pass unnoticed. 

 Prof. Newton says they also sometimes utter a low " tra tra tra" 

 (' British Birds,' ii. p. 471). 



22nd. — Sometimes the distant tapping of another Woodpecker 

 could be heard, but it was not until to-day that we located her ; 

 for it was again a female. She was in a large oak-tree, and here 

 she remained several days feeding entirely on the grubs contained 



