i 3 4 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



counties, an old water-keeper for whom I entertain 

 the greatest regard, and his views on most sub- 

 jects are especially amusing and original. If 

 there is one thing he cordially hates it is a wood- 

 pecker, and when sport has failed he invariably 

 attributes it to the influence of the ' yaffil,' as he 

 calls it. ' There ! I might ha' know'd we shouldn't 

 catch no fish to-day ; I heard that blessed yaffil 

 again last night.' It is, however, not a little 

 remarkable that the ' blessed yaffil ' is not men- 

 tioned until the close of the day, when all efforts 

 to secure a fish have proved utterly futile, and 

 so, as ' there are more fish in the river than ever 

 come out of it,' that ' blessed yaffil ' is pretty freely 

 anathematized. 



The greater spotted woodpecker is between 

 nine and ten inches in length, the lesser variety 

 under six inches. Both birds are, with the excep- 

 tion of the scarlet crown on their heads, black 

 and white. The back and wings of the former 



o 



bird are black with white spots, and the vent 

 scarlet, whereas in the latter the middle of the 

 back is marked with very distinct bars of black 

 and white. The difference between these birds 

 is thus very clearly defined, and they cannot 

 well be mistaken. The greater and lesser spotted 

 are far less common than the green variety. I 

 am inclined to believe that these two birds are in 

 the habit of seeking their food under the bark of 

 the trees rather than by boring into the wood, as 

 is the habit of the green woodpecker, which, 



