GREEN WOODPECKER. 137 



some of tlie names applied to our British species, and it is 

 hoped that such attempts, though sometimes unsuccessful, 

 may yet be acceptable, and even useful. The various names 

 by which our Green Woodpecker is known in different parts 

 of this country invite observation. 



Wood-spite, which I have also seen spelled, Wood-speight, 

 if not intended for our English words, wood, and spite ; the 

 first syllable is derived from woad, in reference to the green 

 colour of the bird, and the second syllable is derived from 

 the German word " specht," a Woodpecker : Grlinspecht is 

 in Germany the name of our Green Woodpecker. 



Rain-bird has been already noticed. Wallis, in his His- 

 tory of Northumberland, observes that it is called by the 

 common people Rain-fowl, from its being more loud and 

 noisy before rain. The Romans called them Plumfs. aves for 

 the same reason. 



Hew-hole is sufficiently explained by the well-known habit 

 of the bird. 



Yaffle, or Yaffil. The Green Woodpecker is so called in 

 Surrey and Sussex. This name has reference to the repeat- 

 ed notes of the bird, which have been compared to the sound 

 of a laugh. White of Selborne says, " the Woodpecker 

 laughs ;■" and in the popular poem of the Peacock "At 

 Home,"" the following couplet occurs : — 



" The Sky-lark in ecstacy sang from a cloud, 



And Chanticleer crow'd, and the Yaffil laugh'd loud." 



In some parts of Hertfordshire, and of the adjoining 

 county of Essex, the Green Woodpecker is called a Whet-ile. 

 The word Whittle, is a term at present in use in some northern 

 counties. Brockett, in his Glossary of North-country words, 

 considers it derived from the Saxon " Whytel," a knife. 

 In Yorkshire, and in North America, a whittle is a clasp- 

 knife, and, to whittle,* is to cut or hack wood ; the origin 



* See Webster's Dictionary, and both Series of the Sayings and Doings 

 of Sam Slick the Clockmaker. 



