Picus Martins 149 



feathers red. The second bigger than a Merula, the 

 third not much less than a barn-door hen. It breeds 

 in various trees and olives in particular. It feeds on 

 ants and grubs, and when hunting for grubs is said to 

 excavate so vigorously as to fell trees. Indeed one 

 that was tamed broke at the third attempt an almond 

 which it had inserted in a chink of the wood, that 

 being fixed it might more surely receive the stroke, 

 and ate the kernel out. In some few birds there are 

 two claws in front and two behind, as in the little bird 

 which men call lynx. This kind is not much larger 

 than a Fringilla, and has the body mottled. It has 

 moreover the peculiar arrangement of the toes, of 

 which I have just spoken, and a tongue like that of 

 serpents, for it shoots it out up to a distance of four 

 fingers' length, and draws it back again within the 

 beak ; it twists its neck moreover backwards, with its 

 body still, just as the serpents do, whence it is 

 commonly called Torquilla, although it is the Turbo 

 of old writers. It has claws of great size, which are like 

 those that grow on the Monedula, it has a strident cry. 



Of Picus the first kind the English call the Specht and 

 Wodspecht, which the Germans name the elsterspecht. 

 The second kind Englishmen term Hewhole, that is, hewer of 

 holes, the Germans grunspecht. The third kind England 

 knows not, but in Germany they call it craspecht or the Crow- 

 Picus, for it is very nearly like a Crow in colour of the 

 plumage and also in size. Besides these three sorts of 

 Aristotle Pliny seems to make a fourth, for in Book 10 

 and chapter 33 he tells us that a certain Picus hangs its 

 nest, in fashion like a cup ; upon a twig among the outer 

 branches of a tree, so that no quadruped is able to come 

 nigh. Except the Vireo alone, I know no other bird in 

 Europe which places its nest in such a way. Wherefore 

 I find no other than the above which the fourth kind of Picus 

 possibly can be. 



