1946 WOODPECKER 
(erroneously written ‘Woodspite”)—the latter syllable being 
cognate with the German Specht and the French Epeiche, to say 
nothing possibly of the Latin Picws—the vulgar explanation, seems 
open to doubt.1 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 Picidz. 
Huxley (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, p. 467) separated the Woodpeckers 
still more under the name of Celeomorphx, and Prof. Parker (Trans. 
R. Microsc. Soc. 1872, p. 219) raised them still higher as Sauro- 
gnathe.? They are generally of bright particoloured plumage, in 
which black, white, brown, olive, green, yellow, orange or scarlet 
—the last conimonly 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 Region, 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 undulating 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 
Wodake (=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. 
3 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. 
