144 
THE ESSEX NATURALIST. 
Attachment of the Greater Spotted Woodpecker to 
its Nesting Site. —During the past three years, Greater Spotted 
Woodpeckers have, despite discouragement, reared their young 
in a large beech in a somewhat secluded part of Epping Forest 
near Chingford. The species seems to have been partial to the 
area for many years, for until comparatively recently another 
beech with many woodpeckers’ holes stood not far away. In 
January, 1918, much storm-damage was done to trees in the 
Forest, and a piece of this beech was broken off, but on January 
19th the birds were “ drumming ” in the tree. They were 
constantly in the neighbourhood during succeeding weeks, and 
on June 15th a youngster was “ chanting ” in the nest hole. 
There appeared to be only one young bird, which came to the 
mouth of the hole whenever the parents were long away. On 
April 27th, 1919, the part of the tree containing the previous 
year’s nest was fractured by the blizzard, but the branches 
growing from it met the ground and prevented a complete 
breakage, the stem being supported by the branches in a 
horizontal position and a fragment of undecayed wood being 
unsevered. On May 3rd drumming was heard continually in the 
neighbourhood, and next day a pair of birds was seen working 
at a hole in the beech. On May 18th that hole had been sawn 
through, but on May 25th the birds were discovered to have 
reverted to an old hole in the broken part of the stem, now hori¬ 
zontal. On June 14th youngsters were chanting in that hole, 
so that the evil-disposed person who sawed through the hole 
made earlier in the year did not get the eggs. The part of the 
stem containing the hole, where the youngsters were hatched 
in 1919, was subsequently sawn off (by permission of the Forest 
Superintendent) in the hope that it might show what further 
excavation had been necessary because of the horizontal position 
of the stem after the breakage ; the hole was found to be 
very large and irregular in shape, the shape in one part being 
determined by the undecayed nature of the wood. On the side 
of the hole that, with the stem horizontal, was underneath, the 
wood and bark were reduced to the thickness of a quai Lci uf *u 
inch only.—J. Ross, Chingford . 
