LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 
241 
LVSESSORES. 
SCAN SO RES. 
PICIDjE. 
LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 
PlCUS MINOR. 
PLATE LXI. FIG. IV. 
Like the closely allied species preceding, the Lesser 
Spotted Woodpecker breeds in the holes of trees, laying 
its eggs, which are, according to Montagu, five in num¬ 
ber, upon the bare rotten wood, and sometimes at a con¬ 
siderable distance from the entrance of the hole. 
Mr. Thurnall, who takes the nests of this species near 
Whittlesford, in Cambridgeshire, has obligingly sent me 
the following particulars. He says that he has generally 
seen the nests in the dead branches of the tree, but also 
in the living trunk ; they are made by the birds them¬ 
selves, and are usually from twelve to twenty-five feet 
above the ground ; but that one which he found in a 
pollard willow, was only three feet high. When these 
holes occur in the dead branch of the tree, they are first 
bored at right angles to the branch till they reach its 
centre, when they pass along it for from twelve to twenty 
inches. The eggs, five in number, are laid upon the bare 
wood about the middle of May. 
