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THE GREEN WOODPECKER. 

 (Gecinus viridis.) 



THIS Woodpecker is indefatigible in its work of 

 hacking trees and dragging out worms ; it flies in a curve 

 from tree to tree, always beginning its climb from the 

 bottom ; finds out the weak places in the tree, in which 

 it pecks holes so that it can reach the insects in them 

 with its long tongue, and so furnish itself with a meal. 

 It is equally busy on the ground, with the ant-heaps, 

 which it bores into. Then when the ants collect together 

 it flings out its long sticky tongue; the ants are caught 

 on it, as on a lime twig, and so they find their way in 

 to the stomach of the bird. The Woodpecker carries 

 on this business also in winter, when he breaks through 

 the hard frozen side of the ant-hill, and surprises and 

 decimates the inhabitants while in their winter sleep. 



It is a noisy bird whose " klu-klu-klu-klu " echoes 

 through the wood, breaking in on many a lonely hour 

 for the woodman; a real blessing in the orchard, and 

 a skilful surgeon for invalid trees ; on that account it 

 deserves protection and care. 



In this country it is fairly common. 



This is the largest and best known of our English 

 Woodpeckers, and it occurs in most of our wooded 

 districts south of Derbyshire and Yorkshire. In the 

 northern counties it only breeds occasionally. In Scot- 

 land it is little known and from Ireland it is also practi- 

 cally absent. In England, too, it is very local in its occur- 

 rences. The song which roused my imagination most 

 in childhood's days was that one with the refrain about 



