110 THE BIKDS OF DEVON". 



is often revealed by the tapping of their bills on the 

 trunks of the trees, or by the curious jarring sound they 

 make with their bills against the branches. They are 

 partly insectivorous and partly fruit-eaters, and do good 

 service in destroying the larvoe of moths and beetles 

 which prey upon the wood, and are all furnished with 

 curious long tongues and glands for supplying them with 

 a viscous fluid, by means of which they easily capture 

 myriads of ants and minute insects. The tongue-bones 

 are of immense length, curling up over the back of the 

 skull, so that the tongue can be shot forth or retracted at 

 will. Its tip is armed with a barbed and horny point, by 

 means of which grubs deep in the wood of a tree can be 

 speared and drawn out through the hole made by the 

 bill. 



The Green Woodpecker is the only one of the family 

 to be considered at all common in Devonshire ; the hand- 

 some Great Spotted Woodpecker is rare, and the Lesser 

 Spotted Woodpecker, although more numerous, is ex- 

 tremely local ; while the Wryneck is only a casual visitor 

 to the county, although a common summer migrant in 

 many parts of the kingdom. 



[Great Black Woodpecker. Picus martins, Linn. 



Dr. Latham says he had hceu informed that this species is sometimes 

 met with in the South, and in particular in Devonshire (Gen. Syn., 8upj)l. 

 17S7, p. 104). According to Dr. E. Moore a specimen Avas in Mr. 

 ^Newton's collection which was shot near Crcditon (liowe's Peram. Dart- 

 moor, lj<48, App. p. '22:i). Prof. Westwood has stated that Mr. C. 

 Kobertson, of Oxford, assured him that he had repeatedly seen this bird 

 in the woods at Clovelly, and that Mr, Jackson, of Xew College, had 

 observed it in East Devon (Proc. Ent. 8oc. Xovember 20th, 1J?71, as 

 reported in Zool. 1872, p. 2914). The Eev. Clement Ley saj-s he saw 

 one at Mount Edgcumbe in 1870 (Zool. 1888, p. 279, and" 1889, p. 341). 



The above evidence of its occiirrence in this county is decidedly weak, 

 and no importance can be attached to it, as no specimen has been ob- 

 tained, except the one mentioned by Dr. Moore, which is still in the 



