The Green Woodpecker. 13 
uncertain what to do. At last, away it went, with 
a heavy, undulating flight, and we caught sight of it 
through the leaves alighting at the base of an old 
beech tree. 
The Green Woodpecker lives for the most part on 
the various insects and larve captured on and under 
the bark of trees. At the same time it feeds more 
often on the ground than the Spotted and Lesser 
Spotted Woodpecker (Picus major and minor), the 
only other representatives of the genus found in 
Great Britain, for we have repeatedly disturbed it 
on the grass, or in the act of scraping at an ant’s 
nest with its claws in search of eggs and grubs, 
which it eagerly licks up with its tongue. 
This long tongue is well worthy of our attention. 
It tapers to a hard, sharp point like that of a needle, 
while the tip is furnished with several minute, hair- 
like barbs set backwards like the point of a fish-hook. 
To the base of the tongue are joined two extremely 
elastic bones (hyoid cornua), each of which is enclosed 
in a delicate sheath. These sheaths passing through 
the lower mandible divide and hang down in the 
form of a loop, one on each side of the neck, then 
they curl round and upwards, and passing over the 
top of the head are again united, and joined to the 
skull in the right nostril (Fig. 1). Besides the 
bones there is a muscle enclosed in each sheath, 
