132 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



they but to take the trouble to open the crop 

 of one of their victims, they would be very 

 much surprised, and might in future be persuaded 

 to spare the life of one of our most beautiful and 

 interesting birds. 



There are three varieties of woodpeckers in 

 Britain viz., the green, the great spotted, and 

 the lesser spotted, or, as it is sometimes termed, 

 the barred and these three birds differ consider- 

 ably in size and plumage. The green woodpecker 

 is by far the largest, measuring from thirteen to 

 fourteen inches in length. The general colour of 

 the body is a greenish-yellow, and in all three 

 varieties the crown of the head is scarlet. 



The flight of the woodpecker is peculiar, 

 consisting of a series of undulations ; that of the 

 wryneck is also somewhat similar, though the 

 undulatory motion is not, perhaps, so clearly 

 denned. The green woodpecker is in some 

 districts called the yaffil. I am inclined to think 

 this name may have originated from the curious 

 cry of the bird, which has by some naturalists 

 been described as sounding like a laugh. The 

 country people assert, and truly, that when the 

 woodpecker laughs loudly rain may be expected. 

 Kingsley, in one of his poems, refers to this well- 

 known peculiarity in the following verses, evi- 

 dently written when he was longing for the rain 

 to fall, in order that he might enjoy a day's 

 fishing, porbably in the lake known as the Fleet 

 Pond, near Aldershot : 



