INSESSORES.
SOJNSORES.
PICIDÆ,
T H E GREAT S POTTED WOODPECKER,
FRENCH-PIE, AND WOODPIE.
Picus major, Great spotted Woodpecker,
y j ',, Greater ,,
y y „ Pied r y y
y y ® »> Greateï fy ' y y
y y
y y
,, Great ,, y*
yy
y y
« ■ ■ , Pic épeiche,
y y
P enn. Brit. Zoo-1, vol. i. p. 8197
Mont. Ornith. Diet.
B ewick, Brit. Birds^vQl. i. p. 142.
Fjlem. Brit. Ân. p. 91.
Seeby, Brit.: Ôrnith. vol. i, p. 375.
JENYNS, Brit. Wrt.-p.
GoiftEfi,'Birds of Europe,-à |, x.
Temm, Man. d’^rnith. voE ii p. 395,
T his species, ne^t to the Green Woodpecker, is the best
known in this country, and is by no means uncommon, partic.
ularly in the wooded districts of our midland counties j where
it inhabits forests, . woods, } parks, and gardens. This bird
climbs-with greatfease in all directions about the trunks and
limbs ■ of, .trees, but appears unwilling to be seen, • creeping
belii&d ‘ a branch -on the approach of any observer, and remaining
there out of sights -. The Great Spotted Woodpecker,
. or Great Black! .and. White Woodpecker, as it is also
sometimes called, like . its /generic companion;.the Green'
Woo'dpe^e^ has .seseral names. Willughby and Ray, and
otljfers- from their example, have called it the W itwall; in.
some, counties- it is; called the French-pie, and in others the
-W©odpi^5;
. Confining itself, chiefly to woods, and rarely'Seen on the
ground, M r.: Gould, vsays they are sometiines- ‘‘-.observed to
alight' upon rails,- .old . post’s, - and /decayed pollards, where,
among the mdss, and vegetable matter, they find a plentiful,
harvest of spid^rs^,. ants, and other insects,;;1 nor are they free
fromgthe charge of plundering the fruit trees of the garden,
and in fast- commit great havoc. ’ among' cheifrie^,. plums, and
wall-fruit in general.” Their food isrinsect« of all sorts, and
probably in all their various stages ; and M. Temminck says
they will also eat seeds and nuts* :
; Thefr,flight is short, and performed in a series of undulations.
A particular sound made both by the adult birds and
also by the young birds- of the year, when seeking their.own
living in autumn, has reference to one of their modes of obtaining
food, and is .thus explained: by the editor o.f the last
edition of Pennant’s British Zoology. ’4 ‘ By putting the
point of its bill into a crack of the limb of a large tree, and
making a quick tremulous motion, with its head, it occasions
a sound as if the tree was splitting, which alarms the insects
and induces them to quit their recesses ; this it repeats every
minute or two for half an hour, and will then fly off to another
tree, generally fixing itself near the top for the same