172 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH INLAND BIRDS 
the tree of the Woodpecker's choice. It does not 
confine itself to trees in woods, however, nor 
to lofty situations, but will often bore into a low 
pollard willow at a height of only eight or ten feet. 
But good-sized beeches and ashes are the trees most 
often selected. A neat round hole, about two and 
a half inches across, is driven horizontally into 
the middle of the trunk or limb ; it then drops 
perpendicularly downward for about two feet, and 
the eggs are laid on the bare wood in a slightly 
enlarged chamber. Sometimes the bird takes 
advantage of rottenness in the wood for boring its 
hole, but such aid is by no means necessary. Five 
or six eggs are generally laid ; they are pure white, 
glossy, but not very smooth in surface, and a little 
larger than a Starling's. Once bored, the nest-holes 
last as long as the tree, though they do something 
to hasten its end by letting in wet, and so promoting 
decay, and also by making a weak spot where a gale 
later on may snap off the branch or trunk. Old 
holes are sometimes occupied by colonies of bats. 
The Green Woodpecker hunts for insects on the 
ground as well as in trees, and, like the Wryneck, 
is especially fond of ants, which it secures with its 
glutinous and immensely long tongue. 
