A TAME WOODPECKER.
In the balcony of one of the most charming country houses I know, with a great historic past, a tray for the birds is laid every day for their own good and the pleasure of an invalid. For the last fortnight the tray has been visited by a greater spotted woodpecker. He is a male bird, and is described to me as " eating his head off daily." It is a great feat to have attracted him. I have- seen the greater spotted woodpecker coming regularly to food in two gardens—one in Surrey, one in Herts ; but they came to a nut-decorated tree some little way from the house ; and I never heard of-one so tame as to come to a tray in a balcony. The incident is perhaps further indication that this very handsome and little known bird, is becoming much commoner. It is a coincidence that in a smaller house near by nuthatches used to come regularly to a tray fixed in the window of a bedroom, where an invalid was temporarily immured. Both species are peculiarly interesting to watch, and indeed to hear. What a pleasant little laugh is the nuthatch's! And the woodpecker is the only instrumentalist, as contrasted with vocalist; among birds.
W. BEACH: THOMAS.
'Wow Animals Move About. By Etienne Rabaud. (Regan Paul 7s. 6d.).
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