THE GREEN WOODPECKER 81 



to say, when the young hens attain the age of six 

 months, all red disappears from their plumage, not 

 by a moult, as Yarrell supposed, but by a change in 

 the feathers from red to black. A similar change 

 takes place in the young males ; the feathers of the 

 fore part of the head remain scarlet till the first 

 moult, which comes at the age of about ten months, 

 when they are replaced with black. Simultaneously 

 the back of the head and neck, hitherto black, 

 becomes adorned with scarlet feathers, and remains 

 so through life. No reason has been found for 

 these changes ; indeed, the conspicuous colouration 

 of the British woodpeckers is very surprising and 

 unaccountable, inasmuch as birds of similar haunts 

 and habits, such as the wryneck, treecreeper, and 

 nuthatch, have the advantage of protective colour- 

 ing, closely resembling the bark of trees which they 

 frequent. 



Woodpeckers the green as well as the two spot- 

 ted kinds are still to be numbered among the 

 avi-fauna of London, their appearance in Kensington 

 Gardens having been noted several times in recent 

 years. 



