Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/129

Rh its whole body swings with every blow, with such vigour are they given. The stiff rectrices, which are graduated to a point, and have hard webs, are certainly a support in this sledge-hammering process, and equally are they of use in climbing. Often it may be seen hammering when it has dropped its cone, but this is either pure ebullition of spirits, or in order to keep its beak down. Woodpeckers are occasionally seen with malformed beaks, but a dead bough is a tempting sounding-board. This bird is a female, which disposes of the supposition (Zool. 1901, p. 97) that it is only the male which hammers.

When first observed by my neighbour, Mr. Knight, it was in a large nutbush in his garden, attending to a cob-nut, and it was not until this bush and the next one were pretty well cleared that it betook itself to the fir-cones. Here, under its favourite branch, the ground is now (Nov. 19th) strewn with dropped cones. Now and then, when it is not at work hammering, a "quat quat" can be heard, and this is the only vocal sound which has proceeded from our handsome visitor, and might easily pass unnoticed. Prof. Newton says they also sometimes utter a low "tra tra tra" ('British Birds,' ii. p. 471).

22nd.—Sometimes the distant tapping of another Woodpecker could be heard, but it was not until to-day that we located her; for it was again a female. She was in a large oak-tree, and here she remained several days feeding entirely on the grubs contained