Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/369

Rh —On May 26th I started in company with my brother from a village in the New Forest in search of Woodpecker's eggs. After taking a Wryneck's nest en route, with seven eggs, from an old tree in an orchard, we reached the forest, where the trees and glades, and fern and solitude — endless as it seems — offer a perfect paradise to the ornithologist. We were soon made aware of the fact that the Green Woodpecker is common there, for though we seldom caught a glimpse of him, yet his loud and merry laugh, as it echoed through the trees, and was answered far away by another of his species or his mate, seemed to say, "Don't you wish you may catch me." We noticed that before rain these birds were always more noisy. We soon found several trees with suspicious round holes, — generally beech trees, which are very numerous and very fine in the forest ; but as the holes were, in all cases but one, some distance from the ground (from about fifteen to twenty-five feet), and as neither of us could "swarm" trees, we began to despair, without a ladder and a good chisel, of being successful. At last, towards evening, and after searching all day, we found a tree to which my brother thought he had seen a Woodpecker go. There sure enough under the tree were quantities of little bits of wood, as if some one had been chopping there. This being a sure sign that the Green Woodpecker has been at work (for they always clean out and deepen the nesting hole), we looked up and saw a hole some twenty feet from the ground, but it did not look fresh, or as if used. However, by aid of some branches I managed to get up, but could not get my hand in, as the birds invariably make the hole just, and only just, large enough to admit themselves. I knocked the tree, but no sign of any bird, though we heard a laugh or two from one in the trees near; as I descended out flew the old bird from the identical hole. What was to be done? we had no doubt there were eggs in, and get them we must. Off we set to a cottage we had seen some half a mile away (houses are very few and far between in the New Forest), borrowed a ladder they happened to have, asked for a saw which, being about a yard long, would not do, and finally succeeded in getting a large hammer aud chisel, and the owner thereof to accompauy us. On reaching the tree, our guide, somewhat like a squirrel, was soon up ; and as the blows of his hammer resounded through the forest the chips flew off, and in ten minutes the hole was large enough to admit one's hand. I got up, and found the old bird sitting on four eggs, which were quite fresh. The bird was released, and the eggs blown. There was no nest; the eggs, which are pure white, and look like pearls before blowing, were snugly laid on the rotten wood. This seems to be the case with all the species. The Green Woodpecker generally lays seven eggs, and I should think from the date, May 26th, that the bird had been previously disturbed, and laid again. We saw several eggs, taken about May 12th. The birds seemed to prefer beech trees (perhaps from