CHAPTER II 

 THE WOODPECKERS 



OF all the woodland birds there are few 

 that belong more completely to the trees 

 than the woodpeckers, being seldom 

 seen in the open save when flying from one covert 

 to another. Even on the wing they are quite 

 different from other birds, for they fly with a 

 peculiar undulating flight that marks them at 

 once. Five or six strokes of their short, strong 

 wings take them upwards, only to glide 

 downwards and forwards, once more to ascend, 

 and so on, as if rising and falling on invisible 

 waves. 



From the tips of their strong beaks, to the 

 ends of their short, stiff tails, the woodpeckers 

 are specialists, being wonderfully adapted for 

 tree-climbing and wood-boring. There are three 

 kinds in this country the Green Woodpecker, 

 a fair-sized bird, the general hue of which, as its 

 name betokens, is green, though a subdued green 

 it is true, however this is relieved by its yellow 

 rump and brilliant scarlet crest ; secondly there 

 is the Greater Spotted Woodpecker, slightly 



