ricin.E. 



PICID.E. 



; iri* nUowfah-whiU ; naked circle which surrounds the 

 v. ood feet black ; bill bluiJi-whit*. Mack at the point Length from 

 1 to 17 inch**. 



Young males bare the upper part of the head marked with red and 

 'LMD pu ; iri* whituh-uh colour. The older the male grows the 

 i vivid do** the red on the head become. 



Tbii bird U found in the north of Europe and Siberia principally : 

 Norway. Sweden, 1 'aland, and Russia poMeas it, and it inhabits the 

 SWIM mountains and tboae of Savoy and the Tyrol. It is rare in 

 France and Germany. There U no record of its appearance in Holland. 

 I*rince Bonaparte mentions it a* occurring very rarely in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Rome, in the winter only, in the deep snb-Apennine woods. 

 Sir W. Jardine, in the Naturalist's Library' (1839), says Mr. Jenyns, 

 the latest writer on our British Fauna, in 1835 writes thus : " No 

 specimen* however known to have been certainly killed in this 

 country exist* in any of our museums, and there is strong reason to 

 doubt the reality of it* claims to a place in the British Fauns." The 

 authority previous to this retts with the works of Drs. Latham and 

 Pullener. 



Omt Black Woodpecker (Pint (Orywwjnu) martin). 

 t'pper Hirure, female ; lower, male. (Oonld.) 



Mr. Tamil, in his interesting < BritUh Birds,' states, tliat the Great 

 niack Woodpecker was added to the catalogue of the birds of these 

 islands by Dr. Latham, who said that he had been informed that the 

 specie* had occasionally been Keen in Devonshire and the southern 

 parts of the kingdom. Mr. Yanvll refers also to Dr. Pultcney's cata- 

 logue of the Dorsetshire birds, where the Great Black Woodpecker is 

 noticed as having been more than once killed in that county one 

 in particular said to have been shot in a nursery at Blandford, and 

 another at Whitchurch ; and be then quote* Montagu's supplement 

 for the following passage : " Lord Stanley assures us that be shot a 

 Ptemt marl , in Lancashire ; and we have heard that another was 

 shot in the winter of 1805 on the trunk of a tree in liattenwa Fields." 

 Mr. Yarrrll then goe* on to state tliat the specimen of the Black 

 Woodpecker, formerly in the collection of Mr. Donovan (who was 



well known to give very high prices for rare British-killed birds, for 

 his own use in his ' History of British Ornithology '), was affirmed to 

 have been shot in this country ; and, at the sale of Mr. Donovan's 

 collection, this specimen was purchased by the Karl of Derby, and is 

 now at Knowsley. Mr. Yarrell further states that he has been told 

 of two instances of the Black Woodpecker having been killed in 

 Yorkshire, and that it is also recorded to have been killed in Lincoln- 

 shire. "A few years since," say* Mr. Yarrell in continuation, "a 

 communication wan made to the Zoological Society of London, that two 

 examples of the Great Black Woodpecker bad been at that time killed 

 in a small wood, near Scole Inn in Norfolk ; and, still more recently, 

 a pair were frequently seen in a small preserved wood, near Chrint- 

 church in Hampshire. It was hoped that they would have remained 

 to go to nest ; but the birds, disturbed by being too frequently 

 watched, left the wood. Lastly, I may add, that Sir Robert Sibbald, 

 in bis ' Scotia Illustrata,' claims Picut martin* as a bird of Scotland, 

 including it in his 'Historia Animalium in Scotia.'" ('British 

 Birds.') 



Mr. Gould thus describes the habits of the Great Black Wood- 

 pecker: "We need hardly say that it is on the bark of trees more 

 exclusively that the Woodpecker finds its food, and to this end are it* 

 powers and organs adapted. If wo examine the toes of the present 

 species, which are to be taken as illustrative of form in the whole of 

 the family (with the exception of a single limited group), we find 

 them long and powerful, furnished with strong claws, admirably 

 adapted for grasping or clinging to the rough inequalities of the 

 bark ; besides this they are placed in pairs, so as in some measures 

 to antagonize ; but not, as generally stated, two before and two b.-lii n. 1, 

 for one pair is lateral and diverges from the other at an acute angle, 

 so as to be applied to the convexity of the tree, and thus render the 

 grasp close and firm. The tail is composed of stiff feathers ; the 

 shafts of which taper gradually from the base of the rxtivmi'.i. --, 

 which, curving inward when pressed against a tree, not only form a 

 fulcrum for the support of the body, but by their elasticity tend to 

 propel it forwards. This provision, the more needed from the poste- 

 rior situation of the legs, is admirably calculated for ascending ; and 

 having explored the bark by a spiral course, the woodpecker flies off 

 to the next tree to repeat the same process. The flight of the present 

 species is undulating, seldom protracted to any extent, but limited to 

 a transit from tree to tree in the seclusion of its native woods. Its 

 food consist* of the larvte of wasps, bees, and other insects ; in addit i.ui 

 however it devours fruits, berries, and nut* with avidity. The female 

 selects the hollows of old trees, in which she deposits two or three 

 eggs of an ivory whiteness." 



Mr. Hewitson saw this species in two instances only in Norway, 

 and at a distance. The birds were so wild that to approach them 

 was impossible. The same observing ornithologist says that on the 

 wing the Black Woodpecker looks like a crow, and that its notes 

 resemble a loud hoarse laugh. 



P. viriilii (Genus Qeciniu, Boie ; Brachylopui, Swainson). This is 

 the Pic Verd and Pic Vert of the French ; Pico Verde, Picchio Verde, 

 and Picchio Pollastro, of the I la liana ; Oi un Specht, and Fichten-, Laub-, 

 Gniner- und Grunlicher-Baunihacker, of the Germans ; Wedknar, Qron- 

 spik, and Grongjoling of the Swedes; Groeuspet of the Danes and 

 Norwegians ; Deteu and Detela of Scopoli ; Green Woodpecker or 

 Woodspite, Rain-Bird, Rain-Fowl, High-Hoe, Hewhole, Awl-Hird, 

 Pick-a-Tree, Yappiiigole, Yaffil, Yaffle, Yaffler, Woodwall (?), Whet- 

 He, Popinjay, and 1'oppiujay, of the English ; Cnooell y Coed and 

 Delor y Derw of the Welsh. 



Male. Top of the head, occiput, and moustaches brilliant red ; 

 face black, upper ports a beautiful green ; rump tinged with yellow- 

 ish ; quills regularly marked with whitish on their external barbs ; 

 tail shaded with brown and striped transversely ; base of the lower 

 mandible yellowish; iriu white, feet greenish-brown. Total length 

 about 13 inches. 



Female with less red on the head and less block round the eyes 

 the moustaches black. 



The young at their departure from the nest have a little red upon 

 the head, the rest yellowish ash-colour; all the green paler, and 

 marked on the back with ashy spots ; the moustaches formed by some 

 black and whitish spots ; the rest of the lower parts greenish-white 

 with transverse brown bands ; iris blockish-ash. 



Varieties. Pure white with the head yellowish ; the plumage 

 whitish, with the ordinary colours weakly developed ; often more or 

 less variegated with white. 



Belon seems to confound the Great Black Woodpecker and the 

 Green Woodpecker : his description and figure indicate the latter, but 

 over the cut in ' L'Histoire de U Nature dee Oyscaux' (folio, 1555), 

 he writes, "DryoooUptos, Pi pro, Pipo, Chlorous en Grec, Picas martins 

 major, Picus arbororius et Arborum Cavator en Latin, Pic mart, Pic 

 verd, ou Pic iaulne en Francoys;" and below he gives the description 

 of the ApioKoAcfirr|f from the ninth chapter of the ninth book of 

 Aristotle (' Hist. Anim.), where the Greek zoologist states that the 

 ApvoKoAairr<| does not perch on the ground, but strikes the oaks to 

 make the worms and insects (oitvtwit) come forth. Now the Green 

 Woodpecker frequently alights on the ground for the purpose of 

 feeding on emmets. In the ' Portraits den Oyveaux,' &c. (4tn, 1557), 

 over the same figure, is printed " Grec., ApiwKoAchrrqt ; Latin, Picu* 



