6 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 



the rump and upper tail-coverts brighter chrome-yellow, the 

 feathers being tipped with this colour; quills externally green, 

 with dull white spots on the outer aspect of the primaries, the 

 inner webs spotted with white ; crown of head crimson, as also 

 a broad moustachial stripe; nasal plumes and fore-part of face 

 black ; sides of face and under surface of body light yellow- 

 ish or yellowish-white ; throat paler; the vent nnd under tail- 

 coverts with crescentic dusky marks or bars ; bill blackish, the 

 base of the lower mandible yellow ; feet grey ; iris white. 

 Total length, about 12-5 inches; culmen, 17; wing, 6-4; tail, 

 47; tarsus, 1-3. 



Adult Female. — Like the male, but has the moustachial stripe 

 black. Total length, 12 inches; wing, 6*4. 



Young. — Resemble the adults, but much duller green in 

 colour, with dusky bars on the upper surface ; forehead and 

 eyebrow black, with tiny white spots ; sides of face blackish, 

 streaked with white ; a black moustache, minutely spotted with 

 white ; under surface of body yellowish-white, profusely spotted 

 with blackish. 



Eange in Great Britain. — Most common in the southern coun- 

 ties, but plentiful in many of the midland districts, as far as 

 the south of Yorkshire. North of this it is rare, and has only 

 been found breeding occasionally in the Border counties. In 

 Scotland it can only be of occasional occurrence, and from 

 Ireland it has been but twice recorded. 



Range outside the British Islands. — Generally distributed over 

 Europe as far east as the Ural Mountains, the Caucasus, and 

 Persia. It occurs throughout France and Italy, but does not 

 cross the Mediterranean, and is replaced in the Spanish Penin- 

 sula and Portugal by Gecinus sharpii. It breeds in Norway up 

 to 63° N. lat. ; in Sweden and Russia up to about 60° N. lat. 

 That it is not a migratory species is shown by the fact that it 

 has occurred but once in Heligoland. 



Habits. — The noisy laugh of the " Yaffle " (as this bird was 

 popularly called in the days of Chaucer^ and is even now known 

 by the same name in many country districts of the south of 

 England) is a sound familiar enough to visitors to the New 

 Forest and other parts of England, where the bird is still to be 

 found. The Green Woodpecker is indeed more often heard 



