GREEN WOODPECKER, 



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accordingly the best known, among British Woodpeckers, 

 and is found over a great portion of, if not all, tlie wooded 

 districts of England and Scotland. Jt is generally seen 

 eitlier climbing the bark of trees in search of its insect food, 

 or passing, by a short, somewhat laboured, and undulating 

 flight, from one tree to another. 



When seen moving upon a tree, the bird is mostly ascend- 

 ing in a direction more or less oblique, and is believed to be 

 incapable of descending, unless this action is performed back- 

 wards. On flying to a tree to make a new search, the bird 

 settles low down on the bole or body of the tree, but a few 

 feet above the ground, and generally below the lowest large 

 branch, as if to have all its work above it, and proceeds from 

 thence upwards, alternately tapping to induce any hidden 

 insect to change its place, pecking holes in a decayed branch 

 that it may be able to reach any insects that are lodged 

 within, or protruding its long extensible tongue to take up 

 any insect on the surface ; but the summit of the tree once 

 obtained, the bird does not descend over the examined part, 

 but flies off to another tree, or to another part of the same 

 tree, to recommence its search lower down nearer the ground. 



The tongue and its appendages in our Woodpeckers are 

 admirably adapted to their mode of life. That of the Green 

 Woodpecker has been frequently figured, and a brief descrip- 

 tion, therefore, may suffice : it is, however, an interesting 

 subject to examine. The great extensibility of the tongue is 

 obtained by the elongation of the two posterior branches or 

 cornua of the bone of the tongue, which extending round the 

 back of the head and over the top, have the ends of both 

 inserted together into the cavity of the right nostril. These 

 elongations, forming a bow, are each accompanied throughout 

 their length by a slender slip of muscle, by the contraction 

 of which the bow is shortened, and the tongue pushed for- 

 ward ; another pair of muscles folded twice round the upper 



