TREE-CLIMBING BIRDS 143 



note of the ways of wood-dwellers. Screened by a 

 thick holly, we may rest here awhile. 



For a long space there is silence, broken only by 

 the flow of the stream against the pebbles, or by 

 the humming of a heavy-bodied bee, whose frail 

 gauzy wings seem inadequate to raise it from the 

 flower-cup wherein it has fallen, rather than 

 alighted. At last in the distance we hear the ex- 

 pected note — the note of the Green Woodpecker : 

 " Yeu-pleu-pleu-pleu "^ — a breezy, laughing cry, 

 which seems startlingly loud to proceed from so 

 shy a bird. 



He comes at last with easy, undulating flight; a 

 bird shaped somewhat like a larger starling. As he 

 alights on the ancidnt bole, clinging to the base, we 

 see him clearly; the head, with its scarlet and black 

 markings, and the green back, merging into golden 

 yellow. He moves easily on the vertical plane, pro- 

 ceeding spirally, his stiff tail-feathers pressed 

 against the trunk. Now he pauses to examine a 

 piece of bark partly detached. Beneath this, he 

 knows, some insect or creeping thing may be lurk- 

 ing, and he strikes it repeatedly. However minute 

 the prey may be, it has little chance of escape. The 

 tip of the tongue is a horny point, armed with fish- 

 hook-like barbs, and provided with a glutinous 

 secretion, to which the most microscopic of insects 

 adhere and are withdrawn into the mouth, whilst 

 the larger creatures — the beetles and spiders — are 

 arrested by the barbs. Although he lives chiefly 

 upon insects found in decayed wood, the Green 

 Woodpecker often drops suddenly to the ground, 

 and may be seen pursuing his search amidst the 



