ta

PI CU Ss MI NO R, Linn.

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.

Picus minor, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 176.

 

varius minor, Briss. Orn., tom. iv. pack

 

striolatus, Macgill. Hist. Brit. Birds, vol. iii, p. 86.
——— discolor minor, Frisch, Vog., pl. 37.

Dendrocopus minor, Koch, Baier. Zool.

Picus pipra, Pall. Zoog. Ross. Asiat., tom. i. p. 414.
Ledouct, Mahl. Faun. Orn. Algérie, p. 22.

Pipripicus minor, Bonap. Consp. Vol. Zyg. 1854.
Pieulus pusillus, P. hortorum, P. herbarum, P. crassirostris, Brehm, der Vollft. Vogelf., p..70, 1855

 

Tue Lesser Spotted Woodpecker is stated by some writers to be one of our rarest birds ; but in this opinion
I cannot coincide, for I am sure that if looked for it may be found in every English county from Cornwall
to Yorkshire. North of this I admit it becomes more scarce, and beyond the Scottish border it is not to
be met with; neither does it occur in Ireland. Morris, in his ‘ British Birds,’ states that one was shot near
Stromness, in Orkney, by Mr. Low in 1774, and another was observed at Sanday on the 14th of October
1823; but these were in all probability stray birds from northern Europe. This Woodpecker is so
common in all suitable situations within an area of fifty miles round London, that it is quite unnecessary to
name any particular places in which it may be found. In my ‘Birds of Europe,’ published in 1837, I
stated that Kensington Gardens was one of its favourite resorts; but the vast increase in our great city, and
the consequent superabundance of smoke, having rendered the fine old trees in those gardens no longer tenable
by insects, the bird has deserted that locality. In Richmond and Windsor Parks, the woods of Taplow and
Cliveden, and the fine elms of the playing-fields at Eton it is tolerably numerous.

The actions of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker are restless in the extreme, for the bird is constantly
flitting from branch to branch, and from tree to tree. Like the Long-tailed Tit, it appears to have a daily
round, at one time traversing the great woods, at others the line of elms growing in the hedgerow. It
seldom descends to the large boles, but flits from top to top with an onward movement, in the course of
which a considerable distance is traversed between morning and night. This bird especially attracted my
attention in the days of my boyhood; and from that period to the present time I have watched it with
great interest, in order that I might become acquainted with its breeding-places and economy, respecting
which so little has been recorded that I may be excused if I should be somewhat diffuse on the subject. To
render credit where credit is due, I must first acknowledge my obligations to Mr. Briggs, gardener to
M. de Vitré, Esq., of Formosa, near Cookham, in Berkshire, for the assistance he has bended me in the
acquisition of the knowledge I desired. During the last few years several pairs have bred in this beautiful
spot, their holes being always made in the upright stems of the broken branches of the loftiest poplars, at

: : Jue - oe
such a height as to be all but inaccessible to any one but a sailor or an Australian ‘black fellow.” Aware of
ail connected with the history of this species for the purposes

my anxiety to become acquainted with every det
1as mounted several of these mast-like

of the present work, Briggs, at considerable risk both to body and limb,
stems, sawn them off, and lowered them to the ground without the least

About the end of April 1861, a pair commenced excavating in one 0
they laboured assiduously for two or three weeks, bringing the chips, one

them out in quick succession ; after the work appeared to be completec i :
when the dead branch was sawn off a few inches below where the bottom o
ach and a half in diameter, had been

fectly round and an ir
yart of which had been blown off by

injury to the eggs or the young birds.
f the lofty poplars alluded to, at which
by one, to the opening, and throwing
, a certain time was allowed to elapse

for the deposition of the eggs,
the excavation was supposed to be. A hole, per

made about six inches from the extremity of the branch (the upper iis: Ma
. < ~e ‘ © r Oo

the wind), and was continued downward for about a foot, gradually mcreasing 1m ¢ iameter to a :

e of a breakfast-cup. Unfortunately, sufficient time ha

yhere 1 inated in a round cavity about the siz o
ee ] three only having been laid, on a few

the deposit of the full complement of eggs;

 

not been allowed for
chips of wood almost as fine as sawdust,

In the year following, the same pair o
branch, and excavated down the stem to a similar depth.
four young birds, nearly ready to fly, were found in the cavity. ae
to the entrance of the hole, and uttering a loud querulous cry. hese

Zoological Society, but did not survive many days.

f birds drilled a circular hole through the flinty bark of the same
On sawing off the branch, on the 10th of June,

were very active, frequently ascending
young birds were sent to the