forates with its bill till it arrives ^t the decayed part, when it 

 works downwards to the depth of eighteen inches or even two 

 feet j the eggs are depofited at the bottom of the hole without 

 any kind of neft, their number is generally five or fixj of a 

 pure glofly white. 



In the breeding feafon this fpecies will fometimes (though 

 but rarely) vifit ant-hillsj but its principal food is caterpillars 

 and other infe6ls, with which it feeds its young, who before 

 they are able to fly climb up the hole where they were hatched, 

 and anxioufly wait the return of the parent birds with food. 

 Its note is particularly harfh and difcordant ; in the fpring it 

 frequently utters a loud jarring noife, not unlike the cracking 

 or fplitting of timber. 



The provincial names of this fpecies are Spotted Gally-Bird, 

 Pied Yaffler, Witwall, and mod of the terms applied to the 

 green wood-pecker are indifcriminately ufed to the prefent 

 bird. 



