492 THE GREEN WOODPECKER. 



The Green Woodpecker. 



P'tcus Viridus. (Linn.) 



" We heard not a scmnd, 

 Save the woodpecker tapping the hollow beech tree." 



This is our common species in Britain, but not very common 

 in Fife— at least I have not often seen it near St Andrews. It 

 is about the size of the jay, but more elongated, and has a longer 

 bill. It may not be so rare as it seems, for all the woodpeckers, 

 like the creeper, when they see or hear any person in the still 

 wood, climb to the opposite side and hide behind the tree. Shy 

 and retiring, its nature is, like humility, to keep out of sight, 

 and, while clearing the trees of their insect parasites, 

 practically, 



" Like humble Allen, with an awkward shame, 

 Did good by stealth, and blushed to find it fame." 



It is one of the gaudiest of our native birds. The general 

 colour of the upper parts is yellowish-green ; rump and tail 

 coverts, yellow, tinged with green ; wing-coverts also green, 

 tinged with brown ; crown of the head and neck, crimson ; 

 space between the bill and eyes and a mystacial band, black, 

 with a crimson patch ; lower parts, greenish-yellow, tinged with 

 grey, faintly barred ; qkiills, greyish-black ; outer webs barred 

 with yellowish- white ; tail barred with dark green and brown ; 

 bill, 2 inches long, greyish-black ; feet, bluish-grey ; iris, white 

 — female similar, without red on the cheek. The wings are 

 long, broad, and rounded ; tail short, which enables it to glide 

 amongst trees with ease. It digs the hole for its nest in a 

 decayed cavity of a beech or elm, about a foot down, round at 

 the entrance, and only large enough to admit the bird, but wider 

 inside. No materials are used, only small pieces of the rotten 

 wood. It lays from five to seven pure white glossy eggs, 1 J in. 

 long, about the size of the jay's. It lays in April. The young 

 often come out of the hole, and run along the branches before 

 they fly. It lives chiefly on larvae and insects, such as the 

 cosus Ugniperda, found in the bark, but also on ants and their 

 eggs ; is often seen on the ground, thrusting its bill into ant 

 heaps, and thus frequents the ground more than the rest of the 



