He rushes at the trees in the hedge as though he could pierce the thick branches like a bullet.

Other birds rise over or pass at the side: he goes through, arrow-like, avoiding the boughs.
Instead of at once entering the wood, he stays awhile on the sward of the mead in the open.
As the pheasants generally feed in a straight line along the ground, so the lesser pied woodpecker travels across the fields from tree to tree, rarely staying on more than one branch in each, but, after examining it, leaves all that may be on other boughs and seeks another ahead.

He rises round and round the dead branch in the elm, tapping it with blows that succeed each other with marvellous rapidity.

He taps for the purpose of sounding the wood to see if it be hollow or bored by grubs, and to startle the insects and make them run out for his convenience.

He will ascend dead branches barely half an inch thick that vibrate as he springs from them, and proceeds down the hedge towards the wood.