I had
the specimen stuffed as a curiosity, though I am not fond of stuffed
birds. It is said that hemp-seed, if given in undue quantities to cage
bullfinches, will produce the black colour, even upon a bird of quite
natural plumage originally, and a case of the kind is mentioned by
Gilbert White.
Aldington, with its quiet apple orchards and the "island" and
shrubberies below my garden, was a happy refuge for birds of all
kinds, and the old pollard-willow heads a favourite nesting-place.
Worcestershire people have some very curious names for birds, and some
of these are also heard in Hampshire and Dorset. The green woodpecker
is the "stock-eagle," "ekal," or "hickle," both in Worcestershire and
Hampshire, and the word survives too in "Hickle Brook" in the Forest,
and in "Hickle Street," a part of Buckle Street in Worcestershire. As
a boy I once marked a green woodpecker into one of the round holes we
see quite newly cut by the bird in an oak; getting a butterfly net I
clapped it over the hole, caught the bird, took it home and placed it
in a wicker cage. Then, returning to the tree with a chisel and
mallet, I cut a hole about a foot below the entrance to the nest, only
to find young birds instead of the eggs for which I had hoped. I went
home to see how my captive was getting on; she was gone, and her
method of escape was plain, one or two of the wicker bars being neatly
cut through.
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