346 WOODPECKER. 



THIS is a large Species ; length thirteen inches, or more; breadth 

 eighteen ; weight near seven ounces. The bill two inches long, 

 triangular, and dusky ; the irides of two colours, the inner circle 

 reddish, the outer white ; crown of the head crimson, spotted with 

 brown black ; sides of the head blackish ; on the lower jaw a spot 

 of red ; upper parts of the body olive green ; towards the rump 

 inclining to yellow ; quills dusky, spotted with whitish ; the under 

 parts greenish white, or very pale green ; tail barred dusky and 

 greenish ; all, except the outer feathers, black at the ends ; the legs 

 greenish ash. 



The female wants the red mark on the lower jaw, otherwise like 

 the male ; these birds lay four or five beautifully transparent white 

 eggs,* weighing about two drachms, in a hollow asp, or other tree, 

 sometimes 15 or 20 feet from the ground ; in defect of a hole suited 

 to their purpose, they perforate some convenient tree of a soft texture, 

 or tending to decay, with their bills, till they come to a hollow part, 

 which they widen if not large enough, and deposit their eggs upon 

 the bare rotten part, without further covering;! the hole is as perfectly 

 round, as if made with the assistance of a pair of compasses; 

 Nuthatches, Starlings, and Bats frequently make nests in these holes 

 when deserted. Frisch and Klein mistake in saying, that the females 

 have not the red crown, for even the young in the nest have the 

 appearance of it ; and I have had the whole brood brought to me, 

 when they could scarcely fly, at which time the red had a mixture 

 of brown, but they do not gain the full red till after the first moult. 



The food is chiefly the larvae of insects, and among others, that 

 of the goat moth ; also ants, and their pupae, which they draw in 



* Sometimes as far as six. — Will. Pennant, Br. Zool. — where some pertinent observa- 

 tions may be found. 



■j- This hole is sometimes so deep, that they must feed their young in the dark, for I 

 have been told by a person, that he was obliged to thrust the whole of his arm, to the 

 shoulder, down the hollow of a tree, before he could reach the eggs. 



