to escape observation, so that it is generally considered to be
much more rare. It is heard to mate the same sort of jarring
noise as the other Woodpeckers, but not so loud ; it is said
to be most partial to woods of beech and oak, and also to
frequent the tops of large èlmsr" I t chooses small holes in
trees, as an obvious security against the intrusion of birds
larger than itself, and Colonel Montagu mentions haying in
one instance found five eggs, deposited on the rotten wood,
without any nest, at a considerable distance below the aperture,
which corresponded with the size of the bird, but did
not appear to have been recently made. The eggs are
smooth, of a delicate spotless flesh-coloured tint, before they
are Mown, the colour of the yelk appearing through the transparent
albumen and thin shell ; but when blown, the eggshells
are thin, of a pure and shining white, nine lines and a
half in length, by seven lines in breadth, and very similar to
the eggs of the Wryneck.
The food of this species is small insects, which they occasionally
seek among long grass on the ground, but are generally
seen examining the bark of trees, searching the branches
rather than the trunks, from the crevices in which they withdraw
stfch as they find within the reach of their long töDgiie, and
the glutinous secretion with which it is covered. Mr.-Gould,
in his birds of Europe says, this, little Woodpeckerr is frequently
to be seen searching for insects on the moss-covered
branches of orchard fruit trees.
This species is not uncommon around London, and may
be seen in Kensington Gardens, * and I find, notices of its
occurrence in Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Dorsetshire,
and Cornwall ; it has also been noticed in Gloucestershire,
Herefordshire, Warwickshire, Shropshire, and as far
north, on the west side, as Lancashire. I am not aware that
it has been found in Ireland. From London eastward and
northward it has been found in Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk,
Cambridgeshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, and as I am
informed by ■ Mr. Thomas Allis, In Yorkshire. Further
northward it is more rare ; but Sir Robert Sibbald includes
Picuê varius minor as a bird of Scotland, and this is a
name by which our Little Woodpecker, the smallest of the
European species,1 was designated by some authors. Professor
Nilsson includes this species in his Fauna of Scandina-.
via,- giving representations of both >sexes $ and M. Vieillot
says, that I t is found as far as the eastern part of Siberia.'
On the Southern part of‘ the European Continent it is found,
though sparingly* as far as Rome.
The male has the beak shorter than the head, angular,
pointed, and black ; hair-dike- feathers at the base of the beak,
projecting over the nostrils,* greyish brown; forehead dull
white; crown of the head bright -scarlet; occiput and nape
black”; irides reddish hazel; cheeks, ear-coverts, and each side
of the nape down to the scapulars, white; under the ear-
coverts on each side a patch of jblack ; upper part of the back
and the'^s'capulars black: middle; of the back white, barred
transversely with bjack ; upper tail-coverts'black ; upper part
of the wings black; both sets of wing-coverts black, tipped
with white; quill-feathers greyish black, with angular spots
of white on the outer webs, and rounded spots of white on
the inner webs, forming four conspicuous and almost regular
white' bars; the four middle tail-feathers black, somewhat
pointed and stiff; the next on each side tipped with white ;
the other two on each side white barred with black; chin,
throat, and all the' under surface of the body, dirty white;
the sides of thé breast marked with a few descending black
lines ; under tail-covertsTwith a few black spots ; legs, toes,
and claws, lead colour.
The whole length five inches and three quarters. From
the carpal joint to the end of the wing three inches and three-
eighths : the first feather very short; the second the same