Pod AP Es MAT. 
It is found in almoft every part of Europe, but is plenty only in 
Germany ; it is rarely feen in France; never in Italy; and only during 
the fummer in Sweden, Switzerland, and Denmark. Extends to 
Ruffia, where it is common in the woods from St. Peterfourgh, to 
Ochotfk on the eaffern Ocean, and to Lapmark on the weft *. 
«c ‘This fpecies is fo very deftructive to Bees, that the Ba/chirians 
in the neighbourhood of the river Ufa, as well as the inhabitants of 
other parts, (who form holes in the trees twenty-five or thirty feet 
from the ground, wherein the Bees may depofit their ftore), take every 
precaution to hinder the accefs of this bird; and in particular are cau- 
tious to guard the mouth of the hive with fharp thorns; notwithftand- 
ing which, the Woodpecker finds means to prove a very deftructive 
enemy: and it is obferved to be in moft plenty where the Bees are in 
the greateft numbers +.” Latham. 
Its food does not confift entirely of Bees; Albin writes of the bird 
he has figured, “« The guts are feventeen inches long, great and lax ; 
the ftomach alfo lax and membraneous, full of Hexapods and Ants. It 
wants the appendices or blind guts as the reft of this tribe.” 
Its neft is capacious and deep, and is faid to be ufually built in 
old 4b or Poplar trees; Frifch obferves, that they often fo excavate 
a tree, that it is foon after blown down with the wind; and that under 
the hole of this bird may often be found a bufhel of duft and bits of 
wood. 
The female lays two or three white eggs; which colour, according 
to Willughby +, is peculiar to the whole genus, or at leaft to all thofe 
which have come under his infpe€tion. 
* Ar, Zool, T Dec. Ruf. IV. p. 9. 17. fT Zool. Danic. 
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