GREEN WOODPECKER. 139 



but remarking that lie had never seen this bird in England, 

 though he had seen it very often in Germany. Galbula, 

 another term applied to the Golden Oriole, is in Ainsworth"'s 

 Dictionary, " a bird which we call a Wittall, or Woodwall, 

 Mart.'''' Galbula is a diminutive from galbiis, signifying 

 yellow. Kilian interprets the Belgic word " weed wael" as 

 galgulus {avis eadem qua galbula, Plin.) avis hirida, ori- 

 olus. He also refers to the German word " wette wal," or 

 " weet wal," which is applied to the Gold Amsell, or Yellow 

 Thrush, two other names for the Golden Oriole. Although 

 these references would seem to identify the Golden Oriole 

 as the Woodwele, yet the remark of Dr. Turner, and our 

 own knowledge of the rarity of the Golden Oriole in England, 

 affords strong presumptive evidence that the " Wood Wele 

 singing from the spray," the bird which Avoke Robin Hood, 

 could not have been the Oriole. A ballad writer, wishing of 

 course to be generally understood, would introduce some 

 bird of familiar occurrence. Harduin translates vireo into 

 verdieVi which, according to Buffon, is the Greenfinch ; and 

 Ainsworth gives Greenfinch as a translation of vireo. The 

 Greenfinch certainly docs not sing very loud, but your free- 

 booters are probably very light sleepers. In an English and 

 German Dictionary, composed chiefly from Johnson and 

 Adelung, the word corresponding to Woodwall is Griin- 

 specht, which, as before noticed, is our Green Woodpecker. 

 There seems to be no doubt that the colour of the Wood- 

 wele was greenish yellow, and this name, with its various 

 modifications, may therefore apply to the Green Woodpecker, 

 the Golden Oriole, or the Greenfinch. The objections to 

 the Green Woodpecker are, that his notes can scarcely in 

 poetical license be called a song ; and, moreover, that they 

 are most frequently uttered when the bird is on the wing. 



The derivations in the present instance, through the assist- 

 ance of a learned friend at Cambridge, who is kind enough 



