HABIT OF GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 83 
jecting one, I found that it took it exactly, so that quite the same 
appearance was presented. 
A fifth tree was interesting in another manner, for here the 
depression in the trunk was natural, caused, I think, by a branch 
having once sprung there. It was larger than the other, nor was 
the shape nearly so true, more resembling that of an inverted 
peg-top. Nevertheless, a fir-cone had been inserted in it, in the 
same manner, whilst one or two others lay on the ground 
beneath, though here, as in the two preceding cases, there was 
no heap. In every case the tree was a Scotch fir—the bark of 
which gives special facilities for such carving—and the cones 
always of another kind, apparently those of the spruce. Under 
all, or nearly all, these trees I found the excrements of a Wood- 
pecker, and at the large heap some of these were buried under 
_ the litter of the desiccated cones, giving the idea that the collec- 
tion here had been a work of time, the refuse of the last-brought 
cones falling upon and covering that of the former ones, and, 
with it, the bird’s excrements, which thus lay at different levels. 
The grooves for the reception of the cones in this tree—where I 
more particularly examined them—had the appearance of having 
been first cut with a knife, and then worn by friction, some being 
smoother than others. This smoothness, I think, must have 
been produced by the constant placing of successive cones in the 
groove. ‘The cones presented all the appearance of having been 
hacked at with a hard, pointed implement, and the refuse, much 
of which was like sawdust, was also to be best explained in this 
way. 
April 24th.—After breakfast rowed to another island—the 
nearest to the settlement—in order to examine the trees there. 
The results of my investigations were as follows :— 
(1) A fair-sized Scotch fir had one deep engravure in the 
bark, of a shape differing very much from those I had found 
yesterday. The chief difference was that, taking those as the 
standard, it was upside down—that is to say, the part corre- 
sponding to the tip of the cone pointed downwards, and, in pro- 
portion with its breadth, it was shorter. On the ground lay 
cones of the tree itself, and some of these seemed to have been 
pecked into. On placing several in the mould with the apex 
downwards, I found that all were effectually secured in it, even 
H 2 
