The present species is less common than the green woodpecker; and as it seldom goes to the ground, and usually confines its food-seeking to the higher branches of trees, it is rarely seen. Nor is it nearly so loquacious as the larger bird, nor so richly coloured, although handsome and conspicuous in its black-and-white dress, with a touch of glossy crimson on the nape. It frequents woods, hedgerows, and plantations, also pollard willows growing by the side of streams. It may be met with in most English counties, but in the northern counties and in Scotland it is very scarce. In Ireland it does not breed, although occasionally seen there as a migrant in winter. These migrants come from northern Europe, sometimes in considerable numbers, and are diffused over the British Islands; the birds of British race are believed to remain in this country throughout the year.
Fig. 60.—Spotted Woodpecker. ⅕ natural size.
Like most woodpeckers, this species feeds principally on insects found in crevices of the bark and decayed wood of trees. In the season he becomes a fruit and seed eater, and visits gardens and orchards to steal the cherries; and also feeds on berries, nuts, acorns, and fir-seeds. He is, for a woodpecker, a silent bird; his usual call is a sharp, quick note, repeated two or three times. The most curious sound he makes is instrumental: it is the love-call of the bird, produced by striking the beak on a branch so rapidly as to produce a long jarring or rattling note.
The eggs are laid in a hole in a tree, not always made by the bird; they are six or seven in number, and creamy white in colour.
Barred Woodpecker.
(Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.)
Dendrocopus minor.
Forehead and lower parts dirty white; crown bright red; nape, back, and wings black with white bars; tail black, the outer feathers tipped with white and barred with black; iris red. Length, five and a half inches.
When Yarrell wrote that the neglect of the name of barred woodpecker, which had been used by some authors for the present species, was to be regretted for brevity’s sake, it was a pity that he did not go so far as to reintroduce it in his great work. For doubtless many a writer on birds has groaned in spirit at the necessity laid upon him to use two such cumbrous names as great, or greater, spotted woodpecker, and lesser spotted woodpecker. Partly on this account I lament Yarrell’s timidity, and partly for a personal reason, since my boldness in using the neglected name will be taken by some readers as an exemplification of the familiar truth that fools rush in where angels fear to tread. But no one will deny that the book-names of these two woodpeckers are bad, and to some extent misleading, since the birds are as unlike in markings as they are in size. The first is as big as a fieldfare, and is spotted; the second is scarcely larger than a linnet, and is distinctly barred.
The barred woodpecker is found in most English counties as far north as York; in Scotland and Ireland it is a rare straggler. It is nowhere common, and appears to be even rarer than it is, owing to its small size and its habit of frequenting tall trees. Its usual note is a sharp chirp, resembling that of the blackbird when going to roost; its love-call, as in the case of the spotted woodpecker, is instrumental, and produced in the same manner. The sound varies in tone and pitch according to the character of the tree performed on, and has been compared to the sound made by an auger when used in boring hard wood; also to the creaking of a branch swayed by the wind.