138 British Birds, 



usually chosen to receive the nest, which is often a 

 foot and a half, or two feet from the entrance ; but 

 sometimes the bird has been known to resort to a hole 

 at some distance from any water. The nest, so called, 

 seems to be constituted of small fish-bones, ejected 

 from the Kingfisher's stomach, and the dry soil of the 

 hole ; while the eggs deposited in it are five or six in 

 number, very round in form, beautifully white when 

 blown, though, from the thinness of the shell, seeming 

 to have a pink hue before the removal of the yolk. 



BELTED KINGFISHER— (ary/^ Alcyon), 

 Two occurrences only recorded. 



FAMILY VIII.— PICID^. 



GREEN WOODPECKER— ((9^rn2?/j viridis ; 

 formerly, Picus viridis). 



Wood-spite, Rain-fowl, Rain-bird, Hew-hole, Yaffle, 

 Whet-ile, Wood wall. Wit wall, Popinjay, Awl-bird, 

 Eaqual, Pick-a-tree, Yappingale, etc. — I observe Mr. 

 Morris spells the name I have written Eaqual in the 

 form Ecle> I have no idea of the origin or etymology 

 of either form, but I have given these names generally 

 in the thought that they may be helpful to some, and 

 interesting to other young egg-collectors. The Green 

 Woodpecker is the most common, and much the best 

 known of all our English Woodpeckers. Besides 

 beino" a very handsome bird, its organisation (as is 



1 It is probably a phonetic variant of Hickwall, and equivalent to 

 Woodwall, Witwall, Whetile, etc. 



