250 Picidw. 



and rolled it out ; but as she rolled it, it grew until it covered 

 the whole griddle. " Nay, that was too big, they could not have 

 that." So she took a tinier bit still ; but when that was rolled 

 out, it covered the whole griddle just the same, and " that 

 bannock was too big," she said, " they couldn't have that either." 

 The third time she took a still tinier bit, so tiny that you could 

 scarce see it ; but it was the same story over again. The bannock 

 was too big. " Well," said Gertrude, " I can't give you anything ; 

 you must just go without, for all these bannocks are too big." 

 Then our Lord waxed wrath and said, " Since you loved Me so 

 little as to grudge Me a morsel of food, you shall have this 

 punishment: you shall become a bird, and seek your food 

 between bark and bole, and never get a drop to drink save when 

 it rains." He had scarcely said the last word before she was 

 turned into a Great Black Woodpecker, or " Gertrude's bird," 

 and flew from her kneading-trough right up the chimney. And 

 till this very day you may see her flying about, with her red 

 mutch on her head, and her body all black, because of the soot 

 in the chimney ; and so she hacks and taps away at the trees for 

 her food, and whistles when rain is coming for she is ever 

 athirst and then she looks for a drop to cool her tongue.'* 



102. GREEN WOODPECKER (Picus viridis). 



This is the most common species among the Woodpeckers, 

 and a handsome bird withal. Its general plumage is yellowish 

 green above, and greenish yellow beneath, with a crimson head, 

 the crimson prolonged to the back of the neck ; it is more often 

 seen on the ground than its congeners, probably from its extreme 

 partiality to ant-hills and their contents. Its flight is heavy and 

 undulating; Gilbert White says ' volatu undoso, opening and 

 closing its wings at every stroke, and so always rising or falling 

 in curves ;' but it never need to travel far, for having ascended a 

 tree from the bottom, in an upright or spiral direction (for it is 

 incapable of descending unless backwards), and having concluded 

 * Dasent's ' Popular Tales from the Norse.' 





