A Blending of Colours 365 



of the white trees, declaring that they had never seen the 

 like before, and hazarding opinions as to what they might 

 be. Nor does their summer glory greatly outshine the 

 gorgeous tints of purple, and red hardly equalled by any 

 other tree which the wild cherries' foliage assumes with 

 the turn of the leaf. No finer contrast to the yellows, and 

 browns, of birch, and elm, could well be desired at that 

 season of enchanting woodland colours ; and when, in 

 addition to its other virtues, the fruit of the cherry is taken 

 into account a much appreciated banquet for feathered 

 guests, if ignored by higher beings the tree surely needs 

 no further commendation. 



A Scotchman named Grant, at that time living at Glan 

 Rafon, in the Lliw valley, told me that, in 1904, he had 

 shot a Green Woodpecker near his house, which had the 

 feathers on the rump nearly as red as those on the crown, 

 and he was a very observant man, and not likely to 

 exaggerate, or to be mistaken. I did not see the bird, as, 

 not knowing its rarity, he had not taken any means to 

 preserve it ; but his entire ignorance of the occasional 

 occurrence of such varieties elsewhere, gives me greater 

 confidence in accepting his statement. His nationality is 

 specially mentioned, as in any details of this kind the 

 memory of a native is always very hazy, and unreliable. 



The plumage of the Green Woodpecker is a perfect 

 study in the blending of greens and yellows, scarcely a 

 shade of either colour being unrepresented in one part or 

 other of the body. The red splash on the crown, with its 

 accompanying black, facial bands, together with the barring 

 of the flight feathers, and the clear white of the lustrous 

 eye, supplying just those pleasing touches of contrast that 

 are so fascinating, when a specimen is examined in our hand, 

 without interfering with the effect of a harmonious whole, 

 or rendering the bird unduly conspicuous amidst its natural 

 surroundings. In the young, in their first plumage, the 

 greens are mostly represented by greyish-olive, and the 

 yellows by dull greenish-white, both thickly freckled with 

 more or less arrow-shaped markings, so as to resemble the 

 generally spotted immature dress of most of the passerine 



