GREEN WOODPECKER 



Gecinus vtvidis 



HE Green Woodpecker is a somewhat local resident in the 

 British Islands. It is pretty generally distributed through- 

 out the well-wooded parts of England and Wales south 

 of Yorkshire, but is only known as an accidental visitor 

 to Scotland and Ireland. 



The Green Woodpecker is the largest and best-known 

 of the British Woodpeckers. Its favourite haunts are large 

 parks full of old timber, and open forests and woods. The peculiar laughing 

 cry and undulating flight of this bird arrest the attention of the observer at 

 once, as well as the curious manner of its progress up the trunk of some huge 

 old tree. Its movements remind one rather of a fly on the window-pane ; it 

 runs up the trunk a little way, pauses a moment or so to pick up an insect, 

 then creeps forward again in little jerks, now working round to the right, 

 then to the left, every now and then tapping the bark with its strong bill. It 

 usually alights on the trunk, fairly close to the ground, and ascends in a spiral 

 course till it reaches the top, when it flies off to some other tree, uttering its 

 peculiar laugh as it goes. It is a very shy, solitary bird, and even a pair are 

 seldom seen together except in the breeding season. It is astonishing how 

 fast the Green Woodpecker progresses up a tree-trunk ; it seems at home in any 

 position, and its stiff, pointed tail-feathers are invaluable in supporting it, while 

 it hammers away at some crevice in the bark. 



The food of the Green Woodpecker is chiefly composed of insects and 

 their larvae, and in districts where ants abound these insects form the bulk 

 of its food. Indeed, the Green Woodpecker may often be seen on the ground 

 scattering the loose mould of some ant-hill to unearth the plentiful supply 

 of ants and their eggs, shooting out its long tongue, and swallowing them in 

 immense numbers. On the ground it is clumsy, in consequence of the short- 

 VOL. iv. i 33 



