6 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



the rump and upper tail-coverts brighter chrome-yellow, the 

 feathers being tipped with this colour ; quills externally gre< 

 with dull white spots on the outer aspect of the primaries, tl 

 inner webs spotted with white ; crown of head crimson, as als 

 a broad moustachial stripe ; nasal plumes and fore-part of face 

 black ; sides of face and under surface of body light yellow- 

 ish or yellowish-white ; throat paler ; the vent and under tail- 

 coverts with crescentic dusky marks or bars ; bill blackish, tl 

 base of the lower mandible yellow ; feet- grey ; iris white. 

 Total length, about 12*5 inches; culmen, 17; wing, 6*4; tail 

 47; tarsus, 1-3. 



Adult Female. Like the male, but has the moustachial stri] 

 black. Total length, 12 inches; wing, 6-4. 



Young. Resemble the adults, but much duller green 11 

 colour, with dusky bars on the upper surface; forehead an< 

 eyebrow black, with tiny white spots ; sides of face blackish, 

 streaked with white ; a black moustache, minutely spotted witl 

 white ; under surface of body yellowish-white, profusely spott 

 with blackish. 



Range in Great Britain. Most common in the southern coun- 

 ties, but plentiful in many of the midland districts, as far 

 the south of Yorkshire. North of this it is rare, and has onl] 

 been found breeding occasionally in the Border counties. Ii 

 Scotland it can only be of occasional occurrence, and from 

 Ireland it has been but twice recorded. 



Eange outside the British Islands. Generally distributed over 

 Europe as far east as the Ural Mountains, the Caucasus, ai 

 Persia. It occurs throughout France and Italy, but does n< 

 cross the Mediterranean, and is replaced in the Spanish Penii 

 sula and Portugal by Gecinus sharpii. It breeds in Norway uj 

 to 63 N. lat. ; in Sweden and Russia up to about 60 N. lat 

 That it is not a migratory species is shown by the fact that il 

 has occurred but once in Heligoland. 



Habits. The noisy laugh of the " Yaffle " (as this bird 

 popularly called in the days of Chaucer, and is even now knowi 

 by the same name in many country districts of the south 

 England) is a sound familiar enough to visitors to the 

 Forest and other parts of England, where the bird is still to 

 found. The Green Woodpecker is indeed more often heai 



