MIDDLE SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 149 



entrance hole is quite round, not larger than is actually 

 necessary, and appears from below so small that lew 

 people would believe it belonged to this bird. It is 

 widened inside in the form of a ball, and extends 

 downwards from the entrance seven to ten inches — 

 seldom more. 



The eggs are laid on tine wood shavings under the 

 walls of the very prettily-worked entrance hole. They 

 are generally five or six in number, sometimes seven. 

 They resemble those of the Greater Spotted, but are 

 much smaller, oval in shape, tender shelled, and of 

 enamelled whiteness. They are hatched in fifteen days, 

 male and female sitting alternately, and the young, in 

 Naumann's own words, are "blind, ugly, helpless, thick- 

 headed," having, like other young Woodpeckers, a car- 

 tilaginous knob upon the corner of the beak. When 

 full fledged they fly round the tree in circles until 

 they gradually separate into twos and threes. The old 

 birds display great affection for their young. 



Mr. Wheelwright describes the old male from freshly 

 killed specimens as follows: — Forehead grey; vertex 

 and occiput carmine red. Throat, sides of the head, 

 and neck, white, with a black band which commences 

 at the gape, and gradually broadening, forms a triangular 

 spot on the side of the neck. Back of the neck, back, 

 and rump black; shoulders white; wings black, with 

 white spots in pairs on both webs of the primaries and 

 secondaries; breast white, with a yellowish, and the belly 

 white, with a reddish tinge, with longitudinal black 

 streaks along the sides of both; under tail coverts car- 

 mine red. The side tail feathers at the end white, 

 with black transverse bands; the four middle feathers 

 quite black; iris brown, encircled with a whitish ring; 

 beak shorter, more compressed and weaker than in P. 



