BRITAIN^S BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS. 211 



be quite unable to rise/ But this cannot be the whole 

 truth, for in our own case the bird was not dropped but 

 placed on the floor, and was, in fact, motionless on it 

 for a few seconds. Neither, however, was there any hold- 

 ing of the hand over it until its muscles became cramped. 

 Experiments should be made as opportunity offers. 



Family, PICWM (Woodpeckers, &c.) ; 

 Subfamily, PICIN^E (Woodpeckers). 



THE GREEN WOODPECKER 



(Gecinus viridis). 

 Plate 65. 



Slowly following the tortuous woodland path, we may 

 often be struck with the comparative scarcity of bird-life 

 in what would seem to be the obvious sanctuary and re- 

 treat of all those birds which build their nests in trees. 

 But many of these seem imwilling to nest where they 

 must perforce go far afield to obtain proper supplies of 

 food. For this or some other reason, the fringes of a 

 wood are always the most thickly populated portions ; 

 in the heart of it we find comparative silence, and are 

 forcibly reminded of the relative fewness of the species 

 which can be called common forest birds. The Coal-Tit 

 is certainly at home here, but its feeble notes do no 

 more than emphasise the silence. Somewhere not far off 

 a Ring-Dove is sure to be 'cooing,' but its soft notes 

 have a way of seeming to come from an infinite distance. 



^Vhile in the midst of such surroundings and such re- 

 flections, there will often break rudely on our ears a loud 

 burst of demoniac laughter, ' Heu, heu, heu, heu, heu ' — a 

 something between a laugh and a neigh. At intervals 



