148 PICIDJ3. 



may yet be acceptable, and even useful. The various 

 names by which our Green Woodpecker is known in diffe- 

 rent parts of this country invite observation. 



Wood-spite, which I have also seen spelled, Wood- 

 speight, is not intended for our English words, wood and 

 spite ; the first syllable is derived from woad, in reference 

 to the green colour of the bird, and the second syllable is 

 derived from the German word " specht," a Woodpecker : 

 Griinspecht is in Germany the name of our Green Wood- 

 pecker. 



Rain-bird has been already noticed. Wallis, in his His- 

 tory of Northumberland, observes that it is called by the 

 common people Rain-fowl, from its being more loud and 

 noisy before rain. The Romans called them Pluvice aves 

 for the same reason. 



Hew-hole is sufficiently explained by the well-known 

 habit of the bird. 



Yaflle, or Yaffil. The Green Woodpecker is so called 

 in Surrey and Sussex. This name has reference to the re- 

 peated notes of the bird, which have been compared to the 

 sound of a laugh. White, of Selborne, says, " the Wood- 

 pecker laughs ; " and in the popular poem of the Peacock 

 at Home, the following couplet occurs : 



" The Sky-lark in ecstasy sang from a cloud, 

 And Chanticleer crow'd, and the Yaffil laugh'd loud." 



In some parts of Hertfordshire, and of the adjoining 

 county of Essex, the Green Woodpecker is called a Whet- 

 ile. The word Whittle is a term at present in use in 

 some northern counties. Brockett, in his Glossary of 

 North -country words, considers it derived from the Saxon 

 " Whytel," a knife. In Yorkshire, and in North America, 

 a whittle is a clasp-knife, and, to whittle,* is to cut or hack 



* See Webster's Dictionary, and both Series of the Sayings and Doings 

 of Sam Slick the Clockmaker. 



