272 
THE LADIES* MAGAZINE OP GARDENING. 
himself on the side of the branch, and by a quick and vigorous applica¬ 
tion of his strong beak upon the naked wood, produces a jarring sound, 
which may be heard at the distance of a mile. The insects being thus 
alarmed, issue out only to be more quickly devoured. 
P. medius. This species is marked a good deal like the foregoing, only 
it is considerably less, not so noisy, and instead of boring into hollow 
trees, contents itself with any accidental opening it may find. They also 
live more on the tops of trees than the other species, and are seldom seen 
on the ground. 
The small Woodpecker (P. minor). This is the smallest British 
woodpecker, and is much more rare than the others; it lives constantly on 
trees and on wood-worms, and has much the manners and markings of 
the two last. 
The woodpeckers have ail a peculiar style of flight; proceeding in long 
bounds or curves, and never alighting upon the horizontal branches of 
trees, but invariably on the trunk, on the bark of which their scansorial 
powers enable them to travel upwards or downwards, or round the butt, 
with the greatest alacrity. To assist their perpendicular position in climb¬ 
ing, their tail-feathers are remarkable strong and rigid; and these are 
always used as props by the bird when at rest on the side of a tree. 
None are so audible as the green one ; all the rest have only a chucking 
note, which they repeat in flight at every jerk of their wings. Their 
cries or screams when attacked by a hawk are, however, very loud and 
dolorous. 
The next genus of the Picse class is the following. 
The Nuthatch (Scilla Europaea). A beautiful little active bird 
called the Nuthatch, from its fondness for hazel-nuts. The upper part 
of its foliage is bluish-grey, and beneath dull orange. They are very 
common in woods in the southern counties of England, and are wholly 
tree birds, nestling in the old holes made by woodpeckers or any other 
opening which will admit them. 
It may be noticed in this place, that holes made by the woodpeckers, 
or by a dead fallen branch, become less and less every year, in consequence 
of the new growth of the tree contracting the orifice. These contracted 
holes are appropriated by the nuthatch, and hy the smaller species of 
woodpeckers, by the wryneck, and by several of the titmice (already 
noticed, p. 51 et seq .); so that the green woodpecker, or Ail, as it is 
provincially called, is in fact, the pioneer for all other birds which breed 
in hollow trees. We have known several instances of swarms of bees 
taking to those holes (which by the bye, is a proof of what has been only 
suspected, that there are some leaders of the swarm who have previously 
