19 MAY 1928, Page 15

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC.

On the subject of the woodpecker and :As musical gifts here is a testimony from a very skilful and thorough naturalist. He writes

" Have you noticed that someone has written to the papers to say that this Greater Spotted Woodpecker' dOes not drum, but blows his trumpet. in this quaint way ? Nonsense'! I' have watched them close by on a daddock '—oak bough—after a flight return repeatedly and hammer at the same spot on the bough, which presumably was the most resonant place. Another thing of the love flight which no one hai recorded is that they _ make a clattering of (I think).the wing feathers when their curious swing of flight is at the lowest point of the arc, and I am almost sure it is done by flinging themselves sideways in some fashion."

These observations were made from a " hide " up a tree. Has anyone else heard this second form of instrumental music ?.

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