WOODPECKERS. 205 



vailing hue is black, often handsomely spotted with 

 white, and varied with brilliant red, the latter 

 especially upon the head. Our commonest British 

 species has a yellowish-green for its prevailing 

 colour, instead of the more sombre ordinary hue. 



GENUS Picus. (LiNN.) 



The typical Woodpeckers have the beak per- 

 fectly wedge-shaped, cylindrical, the upper edge 

 straight, the lateral ridges removed from the 

 culmen. The outer hind toe is longer than the 

 outer fore one : the wings are somewhat lengthened 

 and pointed, with the third quill longest. The 

 colours of the plumage are chiefly black and white, 

 the latter arranged on, the upper parts in large 

 patches or bars. The genus is distributed over 

 both hemispheres. 



The Greater Spotted Woodpecker (Picus major, 

 LINN.), though not quite so common in our island 

 as the Green Woodpecker (Brachylophus viridis, 

 LINN.), is. -more widely spread, extending even to 

 the northern extremity of Scotland and to Ire- 

 land. It is found also in all parts of the con- 

 tinent of Europe, from the pine forests of Nor- 

 way, to the orange-groves of Italy. 



This species, which in some of the counties of 

 England is called the Witwall, the Wood-pie, and 

 the French-pie, is about as large as a Blackbird, 

 but of a stouter form. The colour of the upper 

 parts is black, marked on the head, neck, and 

 shoulders with large patches of white, and che- 

 quered on the wing-quills with square white spots 

 in alternating bars ; the hind head is of a rich 

 crimson hue ; the under parts are of a dull white, 



