NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 73 
They were often flying near me. No one can make a mistake between a Rook 
and a Jackdaw, which is a much smaller bird. 
Hampstead , March 8, 1906. Peter Hastik. 
337. Redwings. — On February 23 I heard a “ charm ” of about forty Red- 
wings for the third time this winter. The tone was lower and sweeter than in 
the Starling’s “ charm.” 
Haselbeech Rectory , Northampton. W. A. Shaw. 
338. Unknown Bird. — The bird whose identity was a puzzle to your 
correspondent “ Hertfordshire,” was doubtless the Green Woodpecker ( Gecinus 
viridis), a familiar and handsome species. Its laugh-like cry is frequently to 
be heard in woody places at most seasons of the year. In this part of Berkshire 
the bird is of common occurrence. 
Fyfield, near Abingdon. W. H. Warner. 
339. Replying to Natural History Query, No. 71 — Unknown Bird — in 
March issue, I have no hesitation in identifying the bird whose laughter-like 
notes attracted the ear of “ Hertfordshire,” as the Green Woodpecker. This 
bird — together with the Lesser Spotted and the Great Spotted — all nest in our 
Hertfordshire woodlands, but the green species alone utters the curious laughter- 
like notes. 
March 13, 1906. W. Percival Westell. 
340. Green Woodpeckers. There seems to be various opinions as to 
the food of these birds and the way they seek it. Some suppose their food con- 
sists principally of insects dug by their powerful bill out of the bark and substance 
of trees, and that they are great enemies of wood-boring insects, and especially of 
the Goat Moth (cossus ligniperda), whose caterpillar tunnels in the very heart of 
forest trees. Authority may be produced in support of the idea that they feed on 
nuts and acorns ; and it is believed by many that they insert their long tongues 
into crevices of the bark of trees in search of insect prey. I venture to think 
that they are ground feeders, and that their food consists almost exclusively of 
ants. The flight and development of wing being feeble they are always found in 
the proximity of trees, to which they go for refuge on the appearance of an enemy. 
It is on the ground near trees that they feed, and on the ground courtship takes 
place. These birds frequent the trees round my house, and afford me many 
opportunities of watching their operations at close quarters. On examining the 
spot where they have been at work on my lawn, holes of a trumpet shape are to 
be seen in and round the nests of ants. They drive the bill up to the eyes in the 
earth, going round and round the hole in so doing, and widening it by moving 
their head from side to side, and as the ants emerge they catch them with their 
viscid tongues. An examination of the stomach shows that their food consists of 
ants and practically nothing else. The love-call of Greater and Lesser Spotted 
Woodpeckers, caused by such rapid strokes of the bill upon a tree as almost to 
amount to a musical note, can be heard on a still spring day at the distance of half 
a mile or more, and the sound of the tappings of a Tit on a branch travels a con- 
siderable distance. When Green Woodpeckers are constructing their nests the 
noise of boring can, of course, be heard ; but at other times it is their laughing 
cry, and not the stroke of their powerful bill, that gives notice of their presence, 
They are not to be seen going up and down trees like Creepers or Nuthatches in 
search of food. It is well known that they suffer severely in prolonged frosts 
when the hardness of the ground cuts off the supply of ants. 
Southacre Swaffham, Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
March , 1906. 
341. Bittern. — One of these birds has for some weeks past frequented the 
lake at Narford, where, as far as human foes are concerned, every precaution was 
taken to preserve its life. Its remains, however, have just been found by the 
keepers at the shore of the lake, where it had fallen victim to a fox. Narford is 
