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NATURAL HISTORY. 



FICUS. 



Viridis (Lat. green], the Green Woodpecker. 



The GREEN WOODPECKER is by far the most common in 

 this country, and may be often seen in woods,* tapping the 

 trees with wonderful rapidity, the blows following each other 

 something like the sound of a watchman's rattle. It generally 

 runs up the trunk of the tree in a spiral direction, occasionally 

 striking off large pieces of dry bark. When it descends it still 

 keeps its head uppermost. 



THE WRYNECK. 



The WRYNECK is tolerably common in the southern counties 

 of England, but is scarcely ever seen in the north and west. 

 It principally feeds on ants, which it picks up with great 



* I have more than once seen the Green Woodpecker busily employed among the 

 trees of the Christ Church Walks, Oxford, and very frequently in Bagley Wood. I 

 have never seen it on the ground, and but once on the smaller branches of the trees. 



