837 



PICID.E. 



PICID^E. 



333 



maxima, Picas martivs, arltwarius ; Italien, Pico, Picliio ; Francois. 

 Pic, Picmurt, Pic verd, Pic iaulne, Picumart;" and below it: 



" Le Pic verd i.iulne a la Turtrelle a guerre, 

 Et au Corbeau et au rouge Pic verd. 

 Do plume iaulne il a le corps couvert, 

 Et scs petits en un trou d'arbe enscrre." 



Green Woodpecker (Picia (Oeciniu) tiridii). 

 Upper figure, adult male j lower, young bird, (Oould.) 



This bird in found on the European continent, but not common in 

 Mullnnd, from Scandinavia and Russia to Spain, Provi-noe, and Italy; 

 the wooded districts of Greece ; England generally, where there are 

 woods. Not recorded ns having been found in Ireland. 



This species obtains its food both upon trees and on the ground ; 

 its Sight is short, undulating, and rather laborious. " When seen 

 moving upon a tree," says Mr. Yarrell, "the bird is mostly ascending 

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

 descending unless this action is performed backwards. 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 

 bidden 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 

 Dearer the gi 



A very large proportion of the food of this species is derived from 

 nnts and their egg-<. Every person who has lived in the country must 

 frequently have seen this gay-coloured woodp?cker on its feed at some 

 ant-hill. Mr. Yarrell states that he has seldom had au opportunity of 

 examining a recently killed specimen, the beak of which did not indi- 

 cate by the earth adhering to the base, and to the feathers about the 

 nostrils, that the bird had been so at work. Bechstein says that in 

 the winter it will take bees from the hive, and that iu the house it is 



HAT. HIST. DIV. VOL. IV. 



fed on nuts, ants' eggs, and meat. Of its manners iu captivity the 

 German ornithologist says that the beauty of its plumage is all that 

 can be said of it ; for it is so fierce, quick, and stubborn, that it can 

 only be kept chained. It is curious, he adds, to see it crack nuts. 



Buffon laments over the hard lot of this bird, always condemned to 

 labour for its existence ; and hears in its wild laughing cry exclama- 

 tions of wretchedness. Au animal can hardly be unhappy while obey- 

 ing au instinct which is associated with enjoyment ; and so differently 

 has the sound fallen upou other ears, that it has conveyed the idea of 

 mirth. But Buffon had strange fancies about the happiness and 

 unhappiness of animals. 



The nest is generally formed in an elm or ash tree ; and when the 

 birds are excavating the hole on which they have pitched for its place, 

 they are said to carry their chips to a distance, for fear their presence 

 on the spot should lead to discovery. The eggs, which are smooth, 

 shining, pure white, are deposited on the bare loose decayed wood, and 

 are from five to seven in number. 



Besides the laughing note, which is repeated more frequently and 

 loudly before rain, a low jarring sound is uttered by the adults, and is 

 supposed to be a sexual call. Mr. Yarrell states that the young are 

 fledged in June, and creep about at a short distance from the holo 

 where they were hatched before they are able to fly, and that he ha* 

 known the young birds taken from the tree and brought up by hand 

 to become very tame and utter a low note not unlike that of a youiig 

 gosling. 



P. major (Genus Dryobalea, Bole ; Dendrocofius, Svvaiuson). This is 

 the Grand Pic VaricS and Pic Vari<$ ou Epeiche of the French ; Picchio 

 Cardinale Maggiore, Picchio Varia Maggiore, and Picchio Rosso Mag- 

 giore of the Italians ; Ber Bunt Specht, Fichten-, Kieffern-, Laubholz- 

 und Bergbuut-Specht, and Grosser Baumhacker, of the Germans ; 

 Gyllenrenna of the Swedes; Hakke-Speet of the Danes ; Great Black 

 and White Woodpecker, Greater Spotted Woodpecker, Witwall, Whit- 

 wall, Wood Pie, and French Pie (the last in Gloucestershire), of the 

 English : Delor Fraith of the Welsh. 



Male. A transverse whitish band on the forehead ; top of the head 

 black ; on the occiput a red space ; a large black band originates at the 

 angle of the bill, surrounds the temples, and forms a junction with itself 

 upon the nape in one direction, whilst in another it advances, enlarging 

 as it proceeds, upon the breast; back and wings deep black ; temples, 

 a patch on the side of the neck, scapulars, middle wing-coverts, and 

 lower parts, pure white ; white spots on the two barbs of the quills ; 

 abdomen and tail-coverts crimson ; lateral tail-feathers terminated 

 with white, with some black spots ; four middle tail-feathers black ; 

 iris red. Length about 9J inches. 

 The female has no red on the occiput. 



Young before the Moult Forehead gray ; all the top of the head 

 of a fainter red than in the adults, interspersed occasionally with a 

 few black feathers ; occiput black ; black of the plumage generally 

 tinged with brown ; white of the lower parts tarnished, and inter- 

 spersed with small blackish points. 



After the first moult the red on the top of the head disappears, to 

 give place to the black ; and the occiput, which is black iu the young, 

 becomes red in the adult males. By this peculiarity in the change of 

 the livery the young of this species may infallibly.be distinguished 

 from those of P. leuconotua and P. mcdiw. 



The distribution of this bird is extensive, more so perhaps than that 

 of any other European Woodpecker. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and 

 Russia; Europe generally to Italy inclusive; common in Smyrna 

 (Strickland) ; England (rarer northward), Scotland, and Ireland. 



Mr. Gould observes that the group to which this species belongs, 

 although they occasionally descend to the ground, are far more 

 arboreal in their habits and manners than the Green Woodpeckers 

 represented by the P. viridii, P. caniceps, and several others from 

 the Himalaya Mountains. " They exhibit," says Mr. Gould in con- 

 tinuation, "great dexterity in traversing the trunks of trees aiid the 

 larger decayed limbs in quest of larva; and coleopterous insects which 

 lurk beneath the bark, and to obtain which they labour with great 

 assiduity, disengaging large masses of bark, or so disturbing it by 

 repeated blows as to dislodge the objects of their search. Besides, 

 searching trees of the highest growth, they are observed to alight 

 upon rails, old posts, and decayed pollards, where among the moss and 

 vegetable matter they find a plentiful harvest of spiders, ants, and 

 other insects ; nor are they free from the charge of plundering the 

 fruit-trees of the garden, and in fact commit great havoc among 

 cherries, plums, and wall-fruit in general. Their flight is rapid aud 

 short, passing from tree to tree, or from one wood to another, by a 

 series of undulations. In their habits they are shy and recluse ; aud 

 so great is their activity among the branches of trees, that they seldom 

 suffer themselves to be wholly seen, dodging so as to keep the branch 

 or stem between themselves and the observer." (' Birds of Europe.') 



The editor of Pennant's ' British Zoology ' states that this species 

 puts the point of its bill into a crack or the limb of a large tree, and 

 makes a quick tremulous motion with its head, thereby occasioning a 

 sound as if the tree was splitting, which alarms the insects, and induces 

 >hem to quit their recesses : this, the editor says, it repeats during 

 ;he spring in the same spot every miuute or two for half an hour, and 

 will then fly to another tree, generally fixing itself uear the top for 

 .he same purpose. The noise, he adds, may bo distinctly heard for 



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