174 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH INLAND BIRDS 
spotted with black and white, while the male bird 
has a bright crimson patch on the back of the 
head. On the wing it has the characteristic dipping 
flight of all its family. It nests in May, boring 
a hole in a tree like that of the commoner species, 
though not so large. Owing to its smaller size, 
the bird is able to pierce it in a bough no thicker 
than a man's forearm. Six eggs are usually laid 
upon the bare wood of the hole, creamy-white in 
colour, a rounded oval in shape, and a little larger 
than a Skylark's. The young Woodpeckers grow 
very active before they leave the nest, and crowd 
to the mouth of the hole with as much noise as a 
brood of young Starlings ; they are fed by the 
parent bird as it clings to the tree outside, and in 
this attitude transfers its mouthful of insects to 
one of the sharp beaks pushing in the doorway. 
LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 
[Dendrocopus minor,) 
Lesser Black and White Woodpecker, Barred 
Woodpecker. — This odd little bird is noticed even 
less seldom than its larger relative ; but it is 
probably the commoner of the two in many parts 
of the south of England. It is scarcely two- 
thirds the size of the other, being a little smaller 
