GREEN WOODPECKER. 143 



THE GREEN WOODPECKER is the most common, and ac- 

 cordingly the best known, among British Woodpeckers, 

 and is found over a great portion of, if not all, the wooded 

 districts of England and Scotland. It is generally seen 

 either climbing the bark of trees in search of its insect 

 food, or passing, by a short, somewhat laboured, and un- 

 dulating flight, from one tree to another. 



When seen moving upon a tree, the bird is mostly as- 

 cending in a direction more or less oblique, and is believed 

 to be incapable of descending, unless this action is per- 

 formed 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 hidden 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 recom- 

 mence its search lower down nearer the ground. 



The tongue and its appendages in our Woodpeckers are 

 admirably adapted to their mode of life. That of the 

 Green Woodpecker has been frequently figured, and a brief 

 description, therefore, may suffice : it is, however, an in- 

 teresting subject to examine. The great extensibility of 

 the tongue is obtained by the elongation of the two pos- 

 terior branches or cornua of the bone of the tongue, which, 

 extending round the back of the head and over the top, 

 have the ends of both inserted together into the cavity of 

 the right nostril. These elongations, forming a bow, are 

 each accompanied throughout their length by a slender 



