272 



GREEN WOODPECKER. 



Gecinus viridis (Z.). 



Resident, local, but fairly common where it occurs. 



Historically, the Green Woodpecker, as a Yorkshire bird, 

 is of ancient standing, being referred to in the ballad of " Robin 

 Hood and Guy of Gisborne " ; an early mention of it was also 

 made by Willughby, thus : — 



" This bird is by some called Hayhoe, which name is, I 

 suppose, corrupted from Hewhole, as Turner saith it was 

 called in English in his time, and Mr. Johnson (of Brignall, 

 near Greta Bridge) now." (Will. " Orn." 1680, p. 22.) 



Thomas Allis, 1844, wrote : — 



Picus viridis. — Green Woodpecker — Common about Doncaster ; 

 occasionally seen near Leeds and York ; not common near Sheffield ; 

 nearly extirpated in the vicinity of Halifax ; rarely met with at Hebden 

 Bridge ; very rare near Huddersfield, though formerly more plentiful ; 

 frequently met with in the wooded districts near Barnsley ; numerous 

 near Thirsk. 



This beautiful species is resident, very local in its distribu- 

 tion, and most numerous in the Vale of York (a name applied 

 to the central plain of the county), and the north-east portion 

 of the North Riding, which may be included between two 

 lines, one drawn from York, by Malton, to Scarborough, 

 and the other from the same starting point, due north along 

 the western base of the Hambleton Hills. In these districts 

 it prefers the woods bordering the highlands, and is more 

 partial in its distribution than the Spotted species, though 

 fairly numerous in the localities frequented by it. The Vale 

 of Pickering is one of its chief strongholds ; it is abundant 

 also in the woods between Whitby and the Tees Valley ; the 

 old Yorkshire ornithologist, Marmaduke Tunstall, of Wycliffe- 

 on-Tees, referring to it in 1784 as " passing the winter here 

 in the north " (p. 60), though, owing to the cutting down 

 of timber and the persecution by collectors, it is not so abundant 

 in the county as formerly. Outside the area indicated it 

 occurs commonly in Wensleydale, Baldersby, Studley, and 



