MALIGNED WOODPECKERS.
It may be said that the circulation of the woodpecker is going up rapidly. The other day ML Eric Parker maintained to the amazement of most naturalists—that the Greater Spotted Woodpecker made vocal and guttural, not instrumental music ; and as if in imitation of Oliver Goldsmith (who made a like claim for the bullfrog), it was asserted that the rat-tat-tat, however made, could be heard at half a mile. That the characteristic noise is made with the beak on wood may be considered proved. Since this controversy other woodpeckers Of the Brent Valley sanctuary have been earning notoriety by attacking a number of bird boxes, and turning out the inmates. This is curious, as woodpeckers (in English but not in German experience) are surprisingly hard to attract into artificial holes. But bird boxes seem to arouse the jealousy of, birds. In one that some of us kept under very close observation, a wryneck's eggs were turned out by a great tit again and again ; and we all know how sparrows will work for weeks to enlarge a
hole and eject tits.
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