are stiff, with sharp points, so as to act as asupport in climbing. Then the breast-bone has been 
pared away in a remarkable manner, so as to clear the tree trunk in ascending, for the Yaffle 
never “climbs down”’; when he gets as high in a tree as he thinks there is any need for, he 
either begins operations again at the base or flies off in a jerky, undulating way to another. 
The pectoral muscles are wanting in the depth and power necessary for a prolonged flight, 
which matters little to a bird like the Yaffle, of exclusively sylvan habits; though it is 
a mystery how some of the other species similarly specialized can undertake their regular 
annual migration in spite of this disability. Dr. Bowdler Sharpe has recorded how five 
* young Great Spotted Woodpeckers were brought to him and Mr. Seebohm when in 
Heligoland. These birds had alighted in an exhausted state in a potato field. 
The characteristic formation of the breast-bone has been an advantage to the Yaffle in a 
way that can hardly have been foreseen when it was planned in nature’s workshop. The 
resulting shallowness of the pectoral muscles—which render the breast almost devoid 
of flesh—is the reason why omnivorous man has never admitted the Green Woodpecker 
to his larder—or, at least, if he has done so, it is not recorded that he ever repeated 
the experiment. Even in France, where everything at all edible is turned to immediate 
use for the table, nobody has yet concocted a palatable dish of Piverts. Thus it 
comes to pass that, though one may travel in France for many days in Spring without 
hearing the gladsome note of blackbird, thrush, or lark, you cannot be long in a French 
woodland without being greeted by the Yaffle’s well-known cry. It is as inseparably 
associated with the oak copse which represents the ancient forests of the Loire, as bunches 
of mistletoe are with the roadside poplars. 
The affinity of birds and reptiles in the scheme of animated nature has been recognized 
long ago. The Green Woodpecker, besides its creeping habit, its extensile viscid tongue, 
and certain anatomical peculiarities in the bones of the head, possesses another attribute 
recalling the reptile kingdom. Its young are hatched as naked as young lizards, 
instead of being protected with down, like nearly all other nestlings. Perhaps, however, 
seeing that the nest is always in the heart of a tree, down has been dispensed with as a 
superfluity, unnecessary to young things so well protected against cold draughts. 
The other two native species of Woodpecker—the Great and the Lesser Spotted—are 
not less remarkable than the Yaffle for their gay coats; but they are less likely to attract 
attention, for, unlike their green cousin, they do not frequent anthills, they are not talkative, 
and they generally move among the higher branches of the forest. Black, barred with white, 
with sparks and streaks of scarlet, is the livery of the males of both Dendrocopus major and 
minor. The female also is started in life with a smart cap of red feathers; but, strange to 
say, when the young hens attain the age of six months all red disappears from their plumage, 
not by a moult, as Yarrell supposed, but by a change in the feathers from red to black. A 
similar change takes place in the young males; thefeathers of the fore part of the head remain 
scarlet till the first moult, which comes at the age of about ten months, when they are replaced 
with black. Simultaneously the back of the head and neck, hitherto black, becomes adorned with 
scarlet feathers, and remains so through life. No reason has been found for these changes ; 
indeed the conspicuous colouration of the British Woodpeckers is very surprising and 
unaccountable, inasmuch as birds of similar haunts and habits, such as the Wryneck, Tree- 
Creeper, and Nuthatch have the advantage of protective colouring, closely resembling the 
bark of trees which they frequent. 
Woodpeckers, the Green as well as the two Spotted kinds, are still to be numbered 
among the avifauna of London, their appearance in Kensington Gardens having been 
noted several times in recent years. 
Educational Series, 14d. per 6 copies, post free. No. I—OWLS. No. II—WOODPECKERS. 
Others in course of preparation. 
Pamphlets on the general question of Protection of Birds may also be obtained from the Society’s 
Publishing Department, Knowledge Office, 326, High Holborn, W.C., or of Mrs. F, E. Lemon, Hon. Sec., 
Hillcrest, Redhill, Surrey. 
Special terms for County Councils and Educational Authorities. 
— 
The Society’s Publishing Office, Knowledge, 326, High Holborn, London, W.C, 1896, 
