KINGFISHER 
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than the Nuthatch. Its plumage is of much the 
same piebald character as the Great Spotted Wood- 
pecker's, but it has more white on the body, and 
the markings on the upper parts form conspicuous 
alternate bars of black and white. The red on the 
head of the cock is not so deep. It has a shrill, 
repeated note of the characteristic Woodpecker 
type, but lively rather than loud, and it sometimes 
drums on a bough in spring like its larger relative. 
It nests in May, boring a round hole in a tree 
in the regular Woodpecker fashion ; the hole is 
naturally much smaller than those of the two 
other species, and may be described as mouse-size, 
whereas both of the other two would better fit a 
rat. Six eggs are generally laid, creamy- white, 
and a little smaller than the Wryneck's, which 
they otherwise much resemble. This curious little 
Woodpecker often haunts old elms and other trees 
even in the outskirts of towns. 
KINGFISHER. 
{^Alcedo ispida,) 
The Kingfisher's brilliant plumage has long 
made it a favourite object for what is known with 
a fine irony as " preservation," or exhibition in a 
