144 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
Attachment of the Greater Spotted Woodpecker to
its Nesting Site.—During the past three years, Greater Spotted
Woodpeckers have, despite discouragement, reared their young
in a large beech in a somewhat secluded part of Epping Forest
near Chingford. The species seems to have been partial to the
area for many years, for until comparatively recently another
beech with many woodpeckers' holes stood not far away. In
January, 1918, much storm-damage was clone to trees in the
Forest, and a piece of this beech was broken off, but on January
19th the birds were "drumming" in the tree. They were
constantly in the neighbourhood during succeeding weeks, and
on June 15th a youngster was "chanting" in the nest hole.
There appeared to be only one young bird, which came to the
mouth of the hole whenever the parents were long away. On
April 27th, 1919, the part of the tree containing the previous
year's nest was fractured by the blizzard, but the branches
growing from it met the ground and prevented a complete
breakage, the stem being supported by the branches in a
horizontal position and a fragment of undecayed wood being
unsevered. On May 3rd drumming was heard continually in the
neighbourhood, and next clay a pair of birds was seen working
at a hole in the beech. On May 18th that hole had been sawn
through, but on May 25th the birds were discovered to have
reverted to an old hole in the broken part of the stem, now hori-
zontal. On June 14th youngsters were chanting in that hole,
so that the evil-disposed person who sawed through the hole
made earlier in the year did not get the eggs. The part of the
stem containing the hole, where the youngsters were hatched
in 1919, was subsequently sawn off (by permission of the Forest
Superintendent) in the hope that it might show what further
excavation had been necessary because of the horizontal position
of the stem after the breakage; the hole was found to be
very large and irregular in shape, the shape in one part being
determined by the undecayed nature of the wood. On the side
of the hole that, with the stem horizontal, was underneath, the
wood and bark were reduced to the thickness of a quarter of an
inch only.—J. Ross, Chingford.