THE WOODPECKER. 



337 



perfectly sound, so sound, indeed, that the bird had evidently given up the idea of inhabiting it 

 for that year, and had betaken himself elsewhere, after having excavated a round hole to the depth 

 of two or three inches. In the same tree, a little lower down, was a similar hole, evidently made 

 the previous year, when the bird had ' ; tapped " the tree, and it was clear that he had returned 

 again in the succeeding season, and had tried a little higher up in the trunk, to see if there were any 

 chance of procuring a domicile. This proceeding must have injured the tree, and was the work 

 of a Green Woodpecker, or Yaffle, whose laughing note was heard from another quarter of the park, 

 even as the above examination was being conducted. In this part of Hampshire, though the bird is 

 not persecuted by the owner of Avington, Mr. Edward Shelley, or by his keepers, the Green Wood- 

 pecker is rare ; but in certain parts of Huntingdonshire the writer can remember to have found it 







- . . .:,</< \ -^ 



m 



GHEEX WOODPECKER. 



very plentiful in his school-days, and it was a never-failing object in a country walk, flitting from tree 

 to tree in front of the observer, and always keeping a sharp look-out from the opposite side of the 

 trunk on which he settled. This species appears in old pieces of poetry under the various names of Yaffle, 

 Woodwele, or Woodwale, Whetile, and it is in some places called "He whole," Woodhacker, &c.*: 



" The Skylark in ecstasy sang from a cloud, 

 And Chanticleer crowed, and the Yaffil laughed loud." 



The Peacock at Home. 



The Woodwele sang, and would not cease, 



Sitting upon the spray ; 

 So loud he wakened Robin Hood 



In the greenwood where he lay." 



Eitson's Edition of Robin Hood, vol. i., p. 115. 



* Yarrell, "British Birds," vol. ii., p. 137. 



