138 PICID^E. 



THE GREEN WOODPECKER is the most common, and ac- 

 cordingly the best known, among British Woodpeckers, 

 and is found over a great portion of, if not all, the 

 wooded districts of England and Scotland. It is generally 

 seen either climbing the bark of trees in search of its in- 

 sect food, or passing, by a short, somewhat laboured, and 

 undulating flight, from one tree to another. 



When seen moving upon a tree, the bird is mostly as- 

 cending in a direction more or less oblique, and is believed 

 to be incapable of descending, unless this action is per- 

 formed backwards. On flying to a tree to make a new 

 search, the bird settles low down on the bole or body of 

 the tree, but a few feet above the ground, and generally 

 below the lowest large branch, as if to have all its work 

 above it, and proceeds from thence upwards, alternately 

 tapping to induce any hidden insect to change its place, 

 pecking holes in a decayed branch that it may be able to 

 reach any insects that are lodged within, or protruding 

 its long extensible tongue to take up any insect on the 

 surface ; but the summit of the tree once obtained, the 

 bird does not descend over the examined part, but flies 

 off to another tree, or to another part of the same tree, to 

 recommence its search lower down nearer the ground. 



The tongue and its appendages in our Woodpeckers are 

 admirably adapted to their mode of life. That of the 

 Green Woodpecker has been frequently figured, and a 

 brief description, therefore, may suffice : it is, however, an 

 interesting subject to examine. The great extensibility of 

 the tongue is obtained by the elongation of the two pos- 

 terior branches or cornua of the bone of the tongue, which 

 extending round the back of the head and over the top, 

 have the ends of both inserted together into the cavity of 

 the right nostril. These elongations, forming a bow, are 



