of the discovery of some Nests of the Black Woodpecker. 265 
Woodpeckers. Picas viridis is not to be found in such a locality : 
the old oaks in the open parts are more suited to his taste, 
where he may be seen in company with the Roller and the 
Hoopoe, the Jackdaw and Starling, the Creeper and Nuthatch. 
But for P. martius and P. major , such a place as I have attempted 
to describe is admirably adapted, both on account of the abun ¬ 
dance of soft and decaying timber, and likewise because there is 
little fear of molestation from mankind, in most countries the 
worst enemies of birds. No other of the five remaining Scan¬ 
dinavian Woodpeckers fell under my observation in the South 
of Sweden, though in a country so well suited for the Picidce it 
is to be expected that most of them occur, with the exception, 
perhaps, of P. tridactylus , which is a more northern species. 
Towards the latter end of May, 1856, I happened to be stay¬ 
ing with a Dane, the overlooker of a large forest belonging to 
Count L——, having been introduced to him by my companion, 
who was likewise a Dane. When he heard that I had come all 
the way from England to find the “Bo” of the Spilkraka* (P. 
martius) , he sent for his chief woodman to inquire what chance 
there was of getting one. The woodman said that he had fre¬ 
quently seen birds throughout the spring, and had in former 
years even noticed their “ Bo,” but that it was generally so high 
that nobody could get at it; that this year a pair of birds were 
known to frequent the edge of a clearing about four miles di¬ 
stant, and that if we would accompany him early next morning 
we might possibly discover the object of our search. This was 
cheering intelligence, and caused us to make an early start. 
Our way lay chiefly through a monotonous wood of spruce firs, 
very uninteresting in appearance, and apparently destitute of 
any species of bird, so much so that my heart misgave me as to 
the success of our undertaking. But on crossing the clearing 
(a square of about 1000 yards), a Spilkraka was seen to slip 
quietly away from the upper part of a tall spruce to which he 
* I am informed by Mr. Alfred Newton that ‘ Spil-kraka * means Spill- 
or Chip-Crow. ‘ Spill ’ is now hardly used in English except for a 
piece of paper or other substance employed for lighting candles. Mr. 
Newton doubts whether ‘spill ’ is any longer in use in Swedish as a sub¬ 
stantive, but states that the verb ‘ spillra y to splinter, is of common 
occurrence.-— Ed . 
