piciDiE. , 327 



The Green Woodpecker {Gednus viridis), is the most 

 common of our limited number of British Woodj)eckers ; 

 on tlie continent of Eiiroi)e it is widely distributed, inha- 

 biting forests and Avoody districts, where its loud cry may 

 be often heard though the bird itself remains unseen. In 

 some of its habits this species differs from the Wood- 

 peckers generally, especially in the circumstance of its 

 often leaving the trunks of trees and descending to the 

 gi-ound, where it searches for ants' nests, being extremely 

 partial to those insects and their lar\'?e, picking them up 

 very dexterously by means of its long tongue. It must 

 not be supposed, however, that these birds seek their food 

 wholly on the ground ; they search for insects mider the 

 bai'k of trees, or in the decaying wood, which they easily 

 shiver by blows of their strong wedge-shaped bills. They 

 scale the trunks of trees with great rapidity, climbing 

 either straight up or in a sj)iral dii-ection, but they descend 

 tail foremost, moving as it were backwards. Their flight 

 is rapid and undulating, and in fl^^ng from trunk to 

 trunk, if the trees are not far from each other, they take 

 only a single sweep. These Woodpeckers make their 

 nests in hollow trees ; or, if they meet with no natural 

 hole fit for their purpose, they excavate one with theii' 

 bills. In the performance of this duty the male and 

 female labour by turns, hammering away with wonderful 

 assiduity, theii- bills, while they are at work, going so 

 fast that the strokes cannot be counted, either by the eye 

 01- the ear. 



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