forates with its bill till it arrives at the decayed part, when it 
works downwards to the depth of eighteen inches or even two 
feet ; the eggs are depofited at the bottom of the hole without 
any kind of neft, their number is generally five or fix, of a 
pure glolTy white. 
In the breeding feafon this fpecies will fometimes (though 
but rarely) vifit ant-hills, but its principal food is caterpillars 
and other infe^ls, 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 harfli 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 moft of the terms applied to the 
green wood-pecker arc indifcriminately ufed to the prefent 
bird. 
