372 INSESSORES. PICUS. WOODPECKER. 



GREEN WOODPECKER. 



PICUS VIRIDIS, Linn. 

 PLATE XXXVIII. FIG. 1. 



Picus viridis, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 175. 12 Gmel Syst. 1. p. 433. sp. 12 



Lath. Ind. Ornith. 1. p. 234. sp. 27 Rail Syn. p. 42. A. 2 Will. 93. 



t. 21 Briss. 4. p. 9. 1. 



Le Pic vert, Buff. Ois. v. 7- p. 23. t. 1 Id. PI. Enl. 371. and 879. Temm. 



Man. d'Ornith. v. 1. p. 391. 

 Grunspecht, Bechst. Naturg. Deut. v. 2. p. 1007 Meyer, Tasschenb. Deut. 



v. 2. p. 118 Frischj t. 35. 



Green Woodpecker, Br. Zool. 1. No. 84 Arct. ZooL 2. p. 277. B 



Lewies Br. Birds, 2. t. 51 Will. (Angl.) p. 135. t. 21 Haye's Br. 



Birds, t. 18. Lath. Syn. 2. p. 577- 25 Id. Supp. p. 110 Mont. Ornith. 



Diet. Pult. Cat. Dorset, p. 6. Don, Br. Birds, 2. t. 37 Bewick's Br. 



Birds, 1. p. 116 Shaw's Zool. v. 9. p. 183. 



PROVINCIAL Woodspite, Rain Bird, High-Hoe, Hew-Hole, Awl 

 Bird, Yappingall, Yaffer, Popinjay. 



THIS species, the type of that group of Woodpeckers dis- 

 tinguished by their olive or green plumage, and forming Mr 

 SWAINSON'S genus Chrysoptilus 9 is a common inhabitant of 

 all the wooded parts of England and Scotland, and is well 

 known by its loud and peculiar cry, which, frequently re- 

 peated, is supposed to prognosticate rain, and from which it 

 has obtained the provincial name of the Rain Bird.* The 

 Food. Green Woodpecker feeds chiefly upon the insects that live 

 in the bark, or that form their receptacles by boring the de- 



* I may take this opportunity of observing, that the habits of animals 

 and birds are perhaps, when thoroughly understood, the best barometers 

 we possess. There is no doubt that their bodily temperament, from not 

 being acted upon by mental affections, and being preserved by regularity 

 of diet in a more uniform state, is far more equably susceptible of the ap- 

 proach of changes of weather than our own. That domestic animals ex" 

 hibit sometimes irritability, and sometimes heaviness, previous to such 

 changes, is very evident. Our observations on the feathered tribe are of 

 course more limited; but such influence has been remarked in the habits 

 of domestic pigeons, and in rooks, and I have before noticed a similar effect 

 in my account of the Golden Eagle. 



