38 The Naturalist in Siluria. 



list of British birds, its claim to this is very slight, rest- 

 ing, I believe, on but a single specimen shot in Fifeshire, 

 Scotland, half a century ago, a waif, in all likelihood, 

 blown over from Kussia or Norway. 



THE WOODPECKER. 



A traveller passing through the shires bordering South 

 Wales, if it be a wooded district, will, every now and 

 then, hear a loud call strangely intoned, resembling, near 

 as may be, the syllables, " glu-glu-glu-gluk," uttered in 

 a sort of laughing giggle. If new to him, it will not fail 

 to excite his curiosity with a vivid desire to know what 

 kind of creature sends it forth. When told it is the call- 

 note of a bird, he will be loath to believe it so ; or, if be- 

 lieving, and he has ever heard the cry of the white-headed 

 eagle, he will be half inclined to think it this. But the 

 first rustic met, and questioned about it, will undeceive 

 him, saying : " It's the heekul, sir." 



He may still fancy the interrogated man means 

 " eagle/* with a corrupt pronunciation ; and not without 

 further questioning, and some difficulty, will he learn 

 that the loudly-laughing bird is only a woodpecker, little 

 bigger than thrush or starling. Even while he is in 

 the act of inquiring about it, the glu-glu-glu-gluk will 

 again break abruptly on his ear ; and if by the side of an 

 orchard, he may see the bird itself flitting from apple- 

 tree to apple-tree, in a pitching, laboured-like flight. 

 Nor does it alight on the branches, but upon the trunk, 

 low down near its base, with head upward, body vertical, 



