Voice or Wood A large number of correspondents have sent
their views on the controversy about the spotted woodpecker. The more or less novel view is that the drumming is not made by the beak but by the syrinx, chiefly on the ground that the noise is too loud to be solely mechanical. This interpretation has had so wide a vogue of late that it is surprising to find no single supporter in my postbag. All those who have given me their experiences are quite convinced that the beak is solely responsible. Some ingenious research student should make an.apparatus for delivering as powerful and rapid blows as the woodpecker's beak. Then we should know whether such a loud noise as the drumming could be produced mechanic- ally from wood. A very simple little apparatus proved how the snipe's drumming or bleating was produced ; and that is almost the only example of mechanical song among birds. The insects, of course, arc the masters of the art of orchestral
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