THE GREEN WOODPECKER. 



559 



The general colour of this bird is black, glossed with green. The fore part of the head 

 is black, and the remainder is covered with a beautiful scarlet crest, each feather being 

 spotted towards the bottom with white, and taking a greyish ashen hue at the base. Of 

 course these colours can only be seen when the crest is erected From below the eye a 

 white streak runs down the neck, and along the back, nearly to the insertion of the tail, 

 and the secondaries, together with their coverts and the tips of some of the primaries, are 

 also white, so that when the bird shuts its wings, its back appears wholly white. The 

 tapering tail is black above, yel- 

 lowish white below, and each 

 feather is singularly concave. 

 The wings are also lined with 

 yellowish white. The bill is white 

 as ivory, strong, fluted along its 

 length, and nearly an inch broad 

 at the base. The female is plu- 

 maged like the male, with the 

 exception of the head, which is 

 wholly black, without the beauti- 

 ful scarlet crest. The total length 

 of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is 

 about twenty inches. 



THE commonest of the British 

 Woodpeckers is that which is 

 generally known by the name of 

 the GKEEN WOODPECKER. It has, 

 however, many popular titles, such 

 as Rain-bird, Wood-spite, Hew- 

 hole, and Wood- wall. This bird 

 is our representative of the Ge- 

 cinae, or Green Woodpeckers. 



Although the Green Wood- 

 pecker is a haunter of woods and 

 forests, it will sometimes leave 

 those favoured localities, and visit 

 the neighbourhood of man. The 

 grounds between the Isis and 

 Merton College, Oxford, are rather 

 favourite resorts of this pretty 

 bird, and I once performed some- 

 thing of a cruel feat by flinging a 

 brickbat at a Green Woodpecker, 

 without the least idea of hitting 

 it, and crushing its legs with the 

 edge of the brick. I do not think 

 I ever threw a stone at a bird 

 afterwards, and though the event 



happened some years ago, I have 

 never forgiven myself for it. 



The name of Rain-bird has been given to this species because it oecomes very 

 vociferous at the approach of wet weather, and is, as Mr. Yarrell well observes, " a living 

 barometer to good observers." Most birds, however, will answer the same purpose to 

 those who know how and where to look for them. The other titles are equally appropriate, 

 Wood-spite being clearly a corruption of the German term " specht." Hew-hole speaks 

 for itself; and Wood-wall is an ancient name for the bird, occurring in the old 

 English poets. 



UREEN WOODPECKKR.-GJcmus w.tuu. 



