I046 WOODPECKER 



(erroneously written " Woodspite ") — the latter syllable being 

 cognate with the German Specht and the French JEpeiche, to say 

 nothing possibly of the Latin Picus — the vulgar explanation seems 

 open to doubt. ^ More than 300 species of Woodpecker have been 

 described, and they have been very variously grouped by systema- 

 tists ; but all admit that they form a very natural Family Picidse. 

 Huxley (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, p. 467) separated the Woodpeckers 

 still more under the name of Celeomorphse, and Prof. Parker {Trans. 

 Pi.. Microsc. Soc. 1872, p. 219) raised them still higher as Sauro- 

 gnathx.^ They are generally of bright particoloured plumage, in 

 which black, white, brown, olive, green, yellow, orange or scarlet 

 — the last commonly visible on some part of the head — mingled in 

 varying proportions, and most often strongly contrasted with one 

 another, appear ; while the less conspicuous markings take the form 

 of bars, spangles, tear-drops, arrow-heads or scales. Woodpeckers 

 inhabit most parts of the world, with the exception of Madagascar 

 and the Australian Eegion, save Celebes and Flores ; but no member 

 of the group is recorded to have occurred in Egypt. 



Of the three British species, the Green Woodpecker, Gecinus 

 viridis, though almost unknown in Scotland or Ireland, is the 

 commonest, frequenting wooded districts, and more often heard 

 than seen, its laughing cry (whence the name "Yaffil" or "Yaffle," 

 by which it is in many parts known) and imdulating flight afford 

 equally good means of recognition, even when it is not near enough 

 for its colours to be discerned. About the size of a Jay, its scarlet 

 crown and bright yellow rump, added to its prevailing grass-green 

 plumage, make it a sightly bird, and hence it often suffers at the 

 hands of those who wish to keep its stuffed skin as an ornament. 

 Beside the scarlet crown, the cock bird has a patch of the same 

 colour running backward from the base of the lower mandible, a 

 patch that in the hen is black.-^ Woodpeckers in general are very 



1 The number of English names, ancient and modern, by which these birds 

 are known is very great, and even a bare list of them could not be here given. 

 The Anglo-Saxon was Higera or Higere, and to this may plausibly be traced 

 " Hickwall," nowadays used in some parts of the country, and the older " Hick- 

 way," corrupted first into "Highhaw," and, after its original meaning was lost, 

 into "Hewhole," which in North America has been still further corrupted into 

 " Highhole " and more recently into " High-holder." Another set of names in- 

 cludes " Whetile " and " Woodwale," which, different as they look, have a common 

 derivation perceptible in the intermediate form "Witwale." The Anglo-Saxon 

 JFodake ( = Woodhack) is another name apparently identical in meaning with 

 that commonly applied to Woodpecker {cf. Yarrell, Br. B. ed. 4, ii. pp. 461-463). 



2 Cf. Shufeldt, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1891, pp. 122-129. 



^ A patch of conspicuous colour, generally red, on this part is characteristic of 

 very many Woodpeckers, and careless writers often call it "mystacial," or some 

 more barbarously " moustachial." Seeing that moustaches spring from above 

 the mouth, and have nothing to do with the lower jaw, the term is misleading. 



