THE GREENT WOODPECKER. 155 



betaking itself to orchards and gardens. Its flight is rapid, and 

 undulated when protracted, and all its motions are lively and in- 

 dicative of great vigour. It is thought to announce the approach 

 of rain by a peculiar cry, which may be likened to the syllables 

 pleu, pleu, but its ordinary note is harsh, and in the breeding 

 season it emits a noise resembling a shout of laughter, whence 

 its name, Yaffler." 



This is but one of the many names by which the bird is known 

 in various parts of this country ; it is so called in Surrey and 

 Sussex. WHITE, of Selborne, says, " the Woodpecker laughs." 

 THOMAS HOOD, in that powerfully descriptive poem of his, The 

 Haunted Souse, speaks of 



" The ringing of the Whitwall's shrilly laughter." 



Wetwall, Woodwall, Woodwale, or Woodwell, which are, in fact, 

 but modifications of one word, are terms used by some old 

 authors, and generally considered to refer to one species of our 

 English Woodpeckers, though to which of them is a matter of 

 doubt. WILLOUGHBY and BAT apply the name Wetwall to the 

 Greater Spotted Woodpecker; and in the New Forest, Hampshire, 

 at the present day, this bird is variously called Woodwall, Wood- 

 wale, Woodnucker, and Woodpie, as we are informed by YAE- 

 EELL, in whose History of British Birds will be found an inter- 

 esting examination into the probable origin of the several terms 

 which have been supposed to refer to the Green Woodpecker. 

 From this work we also learn that in some parts of Hertford- 

 shire, and the adjoining county of Essex, the bird is called 

 Whet-ile, probably from whittle, " to cut or hack wood." Hew- 

 hole is another term used ; it is sufficiently explained by the 

 well-known habits of the bird. Woodspite is another name, 

 and sometimes spelled Woodspeight, the first syllable being de- 

 rived, we are told, from woad, in reference to the green colour of 

 the bird, and the second syllable from the German word specht, 

 a Woodpecker. BECHSTEIN, it will be seen, calls this bird 

 Grunspecht. The term Rain-bird we have already noticed. In 

 Northumberland, according to WALLIS, the historian of this 

 county, the common people call the bird Rain -fowl, because it is 

 more loud and noisy before rain. Woodpeckers were called by 

 the Eomans Pluvice aves, probably for the same reason. The 

 Green Woodpecker is said by MACGILLIVEAY to be very gene- 

 rally dispersed over the European continent, from Scandinavia 

 to Greece. PEOFESSOB JAMESON states, that it occurs also in 

 the Himalayan range of mountains. ME. HAELEY has given a 

 very characteristic account of its habits, as observed in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Leicester, from which we make an extract. " Its 



