THE GEEEN WOODPECKEE 



(Gecinus viridis) 



The Woodpeckers must be classed amongst our rarest 

 birds — nowhere can they be said to be abundant, and there 

 are plenty of wooded districts in England where a Woodpecker 

 is never seen. This scarcity, viewed in relation to their 

 fecundity, is somewhat puzzling to the naturalist. Although 

 they multiply so quickly (as many as six young birds being 

 reared in a season), their struggle for existence must be a 

 very severe one, and only a small percentage survive the 

 contest. Want of food is most probably the great secret of 

 their rarity. They are not migratory birds, and as they live 

 almost exclusively on insects their sustenance is a very pre- 

 carious one. As a proof that this mortality arises from such 

 a cause, we know that in the Tropics Woodpeckers rank 

 amongst the commonest of birds, simply because the nature 

 of their haunts is favourable to their wants and conditions 

 of existence — insect life, the Woodpecker's principal food, 

 being remarkably abundant in the equatorial forests. 



The haunts of the Green Woodpecker are in the southern 

 woods and forests, its place being taken in the north by the 

 Great Spotted Woodpecker. The Green Woodpecker is the 

 largest of the British species, and one w^hose habits are 

 particularly easy of observation in those districts where the 

 bird is common. It is, of course, a bird of the trees, and 

 rarely strays far from the woods. It may sometimes be seen 



